HENRY ROSOVSKY, Taussig Research Professor of Economics, has become dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the end of a transition period. Under the tight leadership of John T. Dunlop, the Faculty has moved from a state of paranoia in the aftermath of two years of strikes to a state of limbo. The Faculty and the University -- now much different from the one Dunlop took over--will apparently move to reestablish an equilibrium similar to the one lost in 1969.

The last class to participate in either of Harvard's great strikes will graduate this Spring. Much of the passion that animated Faculty meetings several years ago is gone. Hopefully, Harvard will never revert to its sad pre-April 1969 stagnation, and the climate here is still a far cry from the turbulence of 1969-70.

Unlike some of the candidates for the deanship, Rosovsky's conduct then did not give him the personal notoriety that would make his appointment a spark to rekindle those feelings. In chairing the committee that recommended the foundation of the Afro-American Studies Department, Rosovsky showed the ability to adjust to changing conditions in the University.

Dean Rosovsky will have to meet high standards as an administrator if he is to match the efficiency and control of his predecessor. But if he is to be a successful dean, he must also act on the premise that students and Faculty have more uniting them than separating them. He will be in a position to close some of the gaps between the groups, and between their ideas of students' role in University policymaking. He will be in a position to encourage student-Faculty groups such as the Commission on Inquiry.

Dean Rosovsky is clearly the number-two man in the University. Although President Bok's Massachusetts Hall staff has made inroads into the University Hall bailiwick, Rosovsky will possess considerable influence, and it will be his job to insure that Mass Hall doesn't usurp any of other people's power.