Dean Dunlop's resignation yesterday to become head of President Nixon's Cost of Living Council should come as no surprise to those who know Dunlop well or to anyone familiar with the drift of University politics over the past year and a half.

When President Bok came into office in July 1921. It was no secret that he intended to expand the President's staff and to centralize many of the bureaucratic tasks of the University. Most of his plan fell in line with a lengthy report on University governance published the prior spring.

For the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, these changes stirred a natural cautiousness about the new role between itself and the University administration. The reflex reaction to the infusion of Bok technocrats into budgetary matters, government and community relations, and student affairs was a protective attitude toward powers already established for Faculty bodies.

Bok's own interest in undergraduate education further convinced some Faculty members that a subtle movement was afoot to draw the critical decision-making functions of the Faculty to the President's office. Many remain convinced that the movement is all too real.

Bok has reponded to Faculty concern by saying that while his administrative reorganization "conjures up dangers of bureaucracy and red tape to some professors and students . . . a major purpose of this administrative effort is to introduce economics in order to channel as much of our resources as possible to the key concerns of the University--teaching and research."

In an interview last spring, Bok added that "if these steps had not been taken, we faced the danger, already experienced by many universities, of suddenly finding ourselves in a serious financial predicament, one in which drastic steps such as freezes of hiring and faculty salaries and cutbacks in educational programs would become necessary."

The energy displayed by the Bok Administration left Dunlop in a sometimes uncomfortable position as Dean. He and Bok are close friends--in 1969-70, they co-authored a book, Labor and the American Community--and so it was difficult for Dunlop to reassure Faculty members, while keeping his friendship with the President in perspective.

Moreover, Dunlop made no secret about his eagerness to escape the bureaucratic morass into which he stumbled when he succeeded Franklin Ford in 1969.

Dunlop came into the deanship at the height of student unrest at Harvard. Ford had resigned after the occupation of University Hall in April 1969, suffering from a stroke. President Emeritus Nathan M. Pusey '28 looked to the Faculty's informal conservative caucus for a new dean, and Dunlop emerged as the perfect choice.

By his own admission. Dunlop's tenure as dean was "understood as a transition between the eras of two Harvard Presidents." It is not certain that he even wanted to stay on through the second half of this transitional period--the 18 months with the new President following Pusey's last 18 months in office.

Privately over the past year, he has expressed his lack of interest in the deanship, a job he regarded almost as surreal when compared to his work in labor negotiation. Every Friday during his tenure as dean. Dunlop was in Washington arbitrating as head of the Stabilization Board, and he seemed to relish his weekly sojours as a respite from the pettiness of Faculty politics.

The urge to stop down has grown over the past year, particularly with the unspoken University and Massachusetts Halls.

Dunlop was hesitant to engage in a debate over centers of power. It was a frustrating up the conflict he felt. Last spring, Dunlop was inalterably opposed to giving rooms to SDS while the Collage was in remain to hold a national convention that was to carry over into spring vacation. Dean Epps had granted permission for the use of rooms during recess but Dunlop made certain that Epps infused a SDS request for rooms two days prior to vacation.

Shortly afterwards, Albert M. Sacks dean of the Law School, announced that he had granted a request to allow SDS to use Law School facilities prior to recess. The scuttlebutt was that Bok had asked Sacks to do so to avoid possible by SDS. He had had to circumvent Dunlop to achieve that end.

Dunlop was not pleased, but he laughed off the incident. He knew that he wouldn't he around long enough for it to matter, as he bided his time for the correct moment and the right reason to step down.