Prof Challenges Smith On Way Out

Government professor Lisa L. Martin, who served as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’s first diversity dean and chair of the Standing Committee on Women, has left Harvard for the University of Wisconsin at Madison, criticizing Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith’s commitment to hiring minority and female professors on her way out.

As a leader of female and minority recruitment, Martin compiled and released two reports on hiring. Her first report raised alarm when it found that the female tenure rate in 2005-2006 had fallen to 21 percent—half the rate of the previous year.

Martin started a mentoring program for untenured female professors, where junior professors would be paired with senior faculty from a different department within the same division. The program, she said, enabled junior faculty to discuss sensitive department issues if needed. Fifty untenured faculty members and 25 tenured professors participated, according to Martin.

But now, Martin said in an interview, she is worried that some of the programs she started may not continue.

While Martin was serving officially as an advisor on diversity to the dean of FAS, she said that Smith did not appear interested in her advice.

In contrast to Deans William C. Kirby and Jeremy R. Knowles, whom she described as “attentive” to her input, she said that Smith was less engaged.

“He was so new to the job, he had such a long list of things to do,” Martin said. “We talked about things once in a while, but I think it was one of a very large number of things on his plate.”

Smith said in an e-mailed statement that he considers minority and female recruitment an important priority.

“We continually look at our processes and actively try to improve them,” he said. “This is critical for us as we strive to have the best faculty.”

But Martin added that the attention of the Faculty as a whole to diversity has diminished since 2005, when Kirby first created the position of diversity dean, following former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ controversial comments regarding women in science.

“I think there’s a bit of fatigue sitting in with people not wanting to continue having to hammer down the diversity issue all the time,” she said. “After really intense attention to these issues after two to three years, people like to think there’s been a change, and they don’t have to be on top of the issue anymore.”

Her criticisms come at a time when the University has turned its attention to the racial climate on campus. University President Drew G. Faust created a committee to review the Harvard University Police Department’s policies following an incident involving two police officers last month.

Smith has yet to select a new diversity dean. He said that he is consulting with Senior Vice Provost Judith D. Singer and other FAS officials on “how best to configure the position for success.”

Government professor Susan J. Pharr will serve as chair of the Standing Committee of Women in the fall, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology professor Elena M. Kramer will serve as chair in the spring, after returning from sabbatical.

In a written statement, Pharr called Martin’s exit “a major loss for Harvard.”

“She...worked very hard on issues that affect the lives and careers of FAS faculty, such as junior faculty mentoring and child care,” Pharr said.

‘AN EASY DECISION’

Having grown up in the Madison area, Martin attributed her move to wanting to live closer to family. But she added that Harvard did not offer her a better arrangement when she informed them of Wisconsin’s offer.

“Obviously, leaving Harvard is a very tough thing to do,” she said this summer. “But honestly, it wasn’t that hard of a decision because Harvard did very little to try to retain me, to keep me around, so it made it an easy decision for me.”

Martin said she spoke often with Government department chair Nancy L. Rosenblum. But Smith and David M. Cutler, then divisional dean for the social sciences, did not approach her once about staying, she said.

“As you might imagine, I cannot talk about the departure of any specific faculty member,” Cutler said in an e-mail. “I can only say that Lisa Martin is a terrific scholar, a wonderful person, and a great teacher. I wish her all the best.”

After a few months, Harvard made a counter-offer, but Martin, who was hoping to move to a new home, said that although the University’s new housing package was structured differently, it did not actually enable her to move.

Rosenblum, who said she advocated for Martin in salary negotiations, said “the University’s counter-offer was a generous offer.”

“Harvard never wants to lose its good young senior faculty, and certainly not its excellent women,” Rosenblum said.

While Martin said she enjoyed Harvard’s fast pace early in her career, Martin said that she is looking forward to settling down in Madison.

“It’s still a fantastic department,” she said of the political science program at Wisconsin, “but it still doesn’t have that sense of urgency and intensity that you have at Harvard.”

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.

—Maxwell L. Child contributed to the reporting of this story.