ag5@pucc-k (Henry Mensch) (01/15/85)
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In this week's Chronicle of Higher Education there is an
article which announes that President Derek Bok of Harvard has
reversed a tenure decision made against Theda Skocpol in 1980 by the
senior faculty of the Sociology department at Harvard.
The tenure committee, all men, was described as being
"split down the middle" over the decision. They had favored
a quantitative approach to scholarship while Ms Skocpol's work
is more comparative and historical.
Her 1979 book *States and Social Revolution* won the pres-
tigious C. Wright Mills Award, and she was honored by the American
Sociological Association for "distinguished contributions to sociology"
in 1980.
After being refused tenure, she filed a sex-discrimination
grievance case; two members of a three-member faculty panel
supported her contention in the action. Noting that the sociology
department had never given tenure to a woman, the panel found
"institutional" discrimination and a "history of insensitivity to
the need for affirmative action."
Subsequently, an _ad hoc_ committee of four Harvard faculty
members and five outside scholars were appointed to review her case;
there were reports of a 5-4 split in Ms Skocpol's favor, and Harvard
President Derek Bok promised to review the case himself after noting
that there were "divisions of scholarly opinions."
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Henry C. Mensch | User Confuser | Purdue University User Services
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". . . he wasn't festive but was probably ambidextrous"