Curricular Review Tops Kirby’s Agenda

Dean William C. Kirby sent his third annual Letter to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) yesterday, announcing the Curricular Review as his top priority and detailing other initiatives, including Harvard’s expansion into Allston and an increase in the size and diversity of the Faculty.

The letter announced two new policies for hiring faculty members-—the creation of “tenure-track” assistant professorships and the birth of a small number of “divisional appointments” of professors.

Traditionally, new professors are appointed to a department after a search conducted by departmental ad hoc committees. Under the new divisional appointments policy, some professors will be selected by interdisciplinary committees, which will be chaired by one of four divisional deans.

In response to Kirby’s letter, members of the FAS Standing Committee on Women said that many professors are outraged over the new divisional appointments and Kirby’s citation of a controversial report that found no significant differences between the status of male and female professors at FAS.

“I think that the Faculty is incredibly angry,” said one member of the committee. “This was an incredible miscalculation on his part.”

Kirby told The Crimson that professors are misundertanding the new “divisional appointments,” which are designed to identify talent that would not normally emerge through a departmental search. He insisted the hires will still require the approval of their hiring department.

Nonetheless, some professors worry the new divisional appointments policy will shift power over appointments from professors to administrators.

“It means that the administration can have a very, very strong role in appointing the people that they want,” said one female tenured professor.

Another member of the committee said that with less departmental oversight, the new legislation will usher in an “old-boys system” of appointments.

“Most women at Harvard think this will be a disaster for hiring at Harvard,” she said. “It’s basically overthrowing the traditions of the University.”

East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department Chair Philip A. Kuhn said that he does not share these worries, noting that departments will likely still retain oversight of appointments.

“I think that the departments are really, really important in exercising intellectual judgments on what’s good work and what’s not,” Kuhn said. “That’s the sort of thing that pretty much ensures that departments will always be involved in appointments.”

Members of the committee also expressed disappointment over Kirby’s decision to cite a report by the Institutional Research Group, which found no differences in salaries, lab space allocation, or the granting of chairs between male and female faculty members.

In January, the committee sent Kirby a letter criticizing the report. One committee member said she was disappointed that the report was nonetheless mentioned in Kirby’s letter.

“Every single action goes against what the Standing Committee on Women has asked him to do,” the committee member said. “That study is not valid and it did not meet any sort of social science standard.”

Kirby wrote in the letter that he was “extremely disappointed” that few women have been offered tenure recently and committed himself to hiring and tenuring more women and minorities.

Kirby’s controversial proposals are part of a plan to increase the size of the faculty to 750 professors by 2010 and to 800 at a later time.

Under Kirby’s leadership, the size of the faculty has grown from 636 professors in 2003 to 672 professors at the start of 2005.

Kirby wrote he would focus future growth of the faculty in the category of non-tenured professors. To encourage the recruitment of young scholars, departments can label associate professorships as tenure-track positions, he wrote.

Kirby’s letter also summarized the work of the Curricular Review committees and confirmed that the recommendations—including a January term, an increase in study abroad opportunities, and a revamping of the Core Curriculum—will be ready for a Faculty vote by the end of the spring.

Kirby also summarized the tentative plans for the future campus in Allston, which include undergraduate housing, facilities for the sciences, a possible student center, and athletic space.

In order to fund these initiatives, Kirby wrote, the administration will continue its “soft freeze” on hiring, fire staff members in “targeted areas,” and also likely participate in a major capital campaign.

—Staff writer William C. Marra can be reached at wmarra@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.