Parker has been unavailable for comment since the vote was taken last week. However, her husband said yesterday that "the report is basically a good one," and that the charges of "repeated contempt" leveled against his wife were "simply not true."

"The whole issue of the report being a fait accompli was a thing which arose in the anger of the moment," he added. "People were infuriated by the talk that the board of trustees liked the report before it was submitted to the faculty--besides, the trustees are not a group of right-wing fascists."

Of the charge that his wife has isolated herself from the Bennington community, Parker said, "She's simply doing what any president does--she's spending a lot of her time on the road raising money."

"Anybody, students or faculty, can come into her office and see her any time," he added.

Allegations like those being directed at the Bennington president are unprecedented in her otherwise brilliant academic career, most sources agreed yesterday.

One student who had been enrolled in Parker's freshman seminar at Harvard yesterday called her "extremely accessible," and "a phenomenally encouraging person who provided my formative academic experience."

Alan E. Heimert, Cabot Professor of American Literature, who served as Parker's undergraduate tutor and supervised her doctoral research here, said last night that he was "very surprised" by the no confidence vote.

I can't imagine Gail withdrawing," he said. "She always seemed extremely popular and accessible."

At the time of the Parkers' Bennington appointments Parker commented in a Crimson interview, "I think Bennington was looking for someone--some ones--who seem to be able to take a job where there are controversies with students and to behave in a way that can be seen as candid."

"While it would be naive to feel that there aren't going to be frustrations at Bennington, I think they will be on another scale--not the kind where you can't sit down and talk to your adversaries," her husband added.

Pearson said yesterday that "it hasn't always been this way" with Parker.

"There was obviously very strong support for her at the time of her appointment," he said. "There was a real honeymoon, but that suddenly ended.