With student activism making a comeback on campus, one University decision was especially significant this week: after 13 months, Harvard has finally named a new police chief.

Saul L. Chafin, director of public safety at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will take the helm of the 80-member University police department on June 12. replacing David L. Gorski, who resigned in March 1977.

Chafin, who has experience with both campus and urban police departments, said earlier this week that he would not come to Harvard and make changes just for their own sake. That attitude should please the Harvard Police Association, whose members are still unhappy over the organizational innovations Gorski instituted while head of the department.

Joe B. Wyatt, vice president for administration and head of the search committee that chose the new chief, said this week the committee sifted through 300 applications before settling on Chafin.

He added that the committee looked for a candidate who would be a professional with a strong background in police work, and who was a "good listener." The committee unanimously agreed that Chafin fit both qualifications, Wyatt said.