On March 22, a memo from Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to the President, who has been supervising Harvard's affirmative action plan still holds that "targets, goals and timetables are applicable to all levels. The one exception may be the tenured Faculty positions, provided we are able to establish that such activity as setting goals would be fruitless, because of the paucity of potential candidates."

ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL area is the confidentiality of university personnel files. HEW has demanded to see institutions' personnel records in order to check up on institutions or to investigate claims of discrimination. They base their right to see the files on a section of the executive order stating that the contractor must agree in writing to "permit access to his books, records and accounts" during normal business hours for "purposes of investigation to ascertain compliance with the equal opportunity clause."

Many institutions object that the privacy of their files, which they claim is necessary in order to select and promote faculty, would be jeopardized. "A great many institutions fear that HEW personnel may leak material," Sheldon E. Steinbach, an attorney for the American Council on Education, said last week. "When hiring, schools need a high degree of confidence in order to evaluate what are often very fine points in deciding who to hire." He went on to explain that universities also saw this as a dangerous precedent: "A couple of years ago, it may have been the subversive control board requesting to see the files."

HEW personnel are prohibited under the Freedom of Information Act, however, from disclosing information contained in personnel files. Furthermore, women's groups contend that it will be hard, if not impossible, for HEW to judge whether or not the institution under investigation is discriminating without personnel information.

In the various controversies, the three major parties--HEW, universities, and women--vary in their alliances. HEW and universities are probably together in agreeing that women are pressuring them unmercifully, even if all three are, publicly, in basic agreement that discrimination is wrong. Women and HEW teamed up against the universities on the issue of personnel files, and last year, women's groups and universities were ideologically aligned against HEW in the belief that government should publish national guidelines clarifying "affirmative action." All three groups now agree on this last point, and HEW is expected to release the guidelines soon.

But in conflicts with women's groups, both HEW's and the universities' positions have weakened in the past year. The reason is pressure from women within the government, the American Council on Education, other educational associations, and even within universities themselves. The cause is that women are infiltrating high level posts in these institutions because all these institutions, as Federal contractors, are under pressure to meet their affirmative action goals and timetables.

HEW has so far developed the most comprehensive response to pressure for affirmative action. In response to a recommendation by the Task Force on Women's Rights and Responsibilities and demands from women's groups within the government, Elliot Richardson, secretary of HEW, last year created the Women's Action Program. Its purpose is to report on how to end discrimination against women both within the Department and in society in general.

Their first report, which came out this year in January, not surprisingly found that while women made up 63.1 per cent of the total HEW work force, they comprised only 14.4 per cent of the highest level jobs, while men, who were only 36.9 per cent of HEW employees, held 85.6 per cent of the top leadership jobs. HEW has developed a plan for correcting this situation, complete with goals and timetables. David Martin, an HEW spokesman, reported last month that HEW had so far been "100 per cent successful in filling positions at the top level." The women have already had an effect by acting as watchdogs on HEW policy.

Their greatest effect, as with the women in the other educational institutions, will probably be in bringing out the more subtle forms of discrimination. The women's action program report analyzes and recommends more study be done on a wide range of subjects pertaining to the biological, social, psychological, and legal role of women in society: child sex and social role development, achievement motivation in girls, social labeling, differential diagnoses in clinical treatments and different treatment under the law. The study also recommends the government experiment with programs to end the restrictions traditionally placed on women by their social role; such programs as family planning services which involve both man and woman, child care, domestic work and social security.

"A lot of men would never dream of discriminating against women. It's very subtle, they don't realize it." Mrs. Kleeman, of the Woman's Action Program of HEW, remarked.

There is no doubt that the women's movement has had a tremendous impact on bringing out these subtle attitudes. Women are not only "the newest, largest, fastest growing advocacy group on campuses," as one WEAL spokesman put it, but perhaps their greatest political impact will be seen as they infiltrate all levels of the organizations they are pressuring.

But more than that, their greatest effect may be, as most radical groups, to make many ideas which once appeared radical seem highly reasonable and respectable. "The women's movement has made middle positions comfortable: I don't think HEW would have responded without it." Ms. Kleeman said. "What is a radical position now will be conservative in a few years."

The question of discrimination is a very sensitive one to a university administrations' posture, which is traditionally liberal. It is interesting that in spite of the controversies and often adversary stances between women, universities and the government, all agree with the goal, as stated by Elliot Richardson: "We try to get rid of discrimination as soon as we become aware of it." And the role of women--as many people have been saying for a long time in various contexts--is clear. The end of the quote by Lucy Stone--a quote which is framed on Bernice Sandler's wall--sums it up:

"It shall be the business of life to deepen this disappointment in every woman's heart until she bows down to it no longer."