The Committee is impressed not only with the need for independent judgment in the recruitment of faculty but also with the need for increased vigor and expedition in the operation of recruitment procedures. In particular, greater enterprise and initiative are required from departments and their chairmen. The day is past, if it ever existed, in which an invitation to Harvard was all that was required to bring a faculty member from another leading university. The growing number of scholars, specialties, universities, and research centers creates the need for widespread and systematic search for candidates for appointment.
We believe there are strong intellectual and scholarly reasons for having in the non-tenure ranks of a department young scholars who have taken their graduate training elsewhere. The recommendations of this Committee on titles and compensation should improve the opportunities in many departments for outside recruitment of assistant and associate professors.
The Committee is concerned by evidence of dissatisfaction among instructors and assistant professors in some departments. Some of these attitudes may be related to compensation and career prospects at Harvard. Some may arise from burdensome teaching assignments and inadequate research opportunities. A great deal appears to be related to status and relations with professors.
While this is not a new problem, the Committee recommends that each department review its practices as they affect this relationship. Teaching responsibilities, committee assignments, research opportunities, space allocations, closer relations with senior colleagues, and measures to assist placement no doubt all affect the atmosphere of a department and its attractiveness to young scholars.
The Committee also recommends that the Dean of the Faulty request particular departments to report to him the results of these reviews. The Houses and the research centers no doubt can also make a further contribution toward the development of a sense of the intellectual community of scholars of all ranks.
A distinguished department with a reputation for genuine concern with the scholarly growth and professional advancement of its non-tenure members is likely to serve as the most effective magnet for recruiting an outstanding junior faculty.
The Committee recommends that Harvard develop its Shady Hill property for faculty housing. A combination of apartments and town houses on this site would, in our view, be the best form of development.
Housing and Schooling
The Committee finds that the quality of the public schools in Cambridge has improved over the past thirty years, and the better elementary schools in Cambridge match those of the suburbs.
For reasons specified in Chapter VI, the Committee believes that it would not be feasible for the University to establish a school for faculty children.
The most serious problems respecting the education of faculty children, below the college level, appear to arise in the secondary school years. The Committee recommends that the interest-free loan program for undergraduate and graduate study of faculty children, regardless of their parents' domicile, be extended to educational expenses of the secondary school years with a corresponding increase in the maximum loan permitted. This arrangement would also facilitate a greater degree of freedom to faculty families in planning financing for the education of children.
The Committee recommends that the University, if invited, provide on released time a certain number of teachers and advisers in areas in which it may be difficult for Cambridge schools to recruit.
Educational Policy and Financial Constraints
We recommend that the Dean of the Faculty, with the assistance of appropriate staff and in cooperation with each department, gather on a continuing basis data on each department and its costs....
Periodically a report should be prepared on each department by the Dean, with the assistance of staff and the cooperation of the department, on the activities and performance of the department and associated costs....
There is also need for systematic review of those decisions with impacts across departmental lines, if not on the whole faculty....
In large departments, or in others facing complex questions, it is appropriate for the chairman of the department, with approval of the Dean, to be relieved of part of a full-time teaching load to permit greater attention to the management and administration of departmental affairs. Recruitment of faculty requires more time and deserves more attention than is usually devoted to it. Serious attention to the leadership and administration of departmental affairs may contribute significantly to the development and maintenance of departmental distinction.
The Dean of the Faculty will require additional assistance to carry out the recommendations of this report. For many years the responsibility and span of authority of the Dean have been very large and have been growing. This Committee has com-