WILSON, James Q.
James Q. Wilson shattuck Professor of Government is no stranger to gossip about high-level administrative positions. When he was an up-and-coming 39-year-old scholar in 1970 for instance. Wilson's name was circulated in lists of candidates for the Harvard presidency. And shortly after that, Wilson was reported to be one of the leading candidates to replace Dean of the Faculty John T. Dunlop the labor economist who left to join the Nixon Administration.
So it's no surprise that Wilson is once again the subject of similar speculation as Harvard gets ready to replace the man who replaced Dunlop--Rosovsky.
Colleagues and friends say Wilson's eloquence, reputation as a scholar of American government and tough-minded--but fair--negotiating skills make it very likely that the longtime Harvard professor is one Bok's list of candidates for the deanship.
A California native who almost wasn't going to college until he won a debating scholarship to the University of the Redlands. Wilson received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and has gone on to become a prolific scholar in topics such as city politics bureaucracy law enforcement and crime--not to mention and accomplished scuba diver.
In the process he has made his mark as one of Harvard's better known professors, probably because of his proclivity to take on controversial topics--affirmative action and crime prevention for example--in more popular publications like Commentary magazine.
Wilson shies away from the neo-conservative label hung on him by many political commentators, who point to what they behave are his hardline stances on issues like crime policy. He is known in that field as an advocate of emphasizing deterrents for stopping crimes.
"Most of things I write are for other scholars, and I don't think that any 'isms' can be attached to them," he says pointedly.
Even beyond his teaching and research, Wilson has seen a fair share of controversy in the various administrative tasks he has carried out over his Harvard career. "He's the sort of man everybody would like to see in charge when there's a crisis." summarizes one observer.
Another admirer his dissertation adviser Markham Professor of Government Edward C. Banfield for example remembers an incident from the late 1960s. When Wilson served as chairman of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and Harvard.
The center he recalls sponsored a study by Martin Anderson--who later becams a top adviser to President Reagan--called. "The federal Bureaucracy," a vehement critique of the government's urban renewal policies that sparked outrage among bureaucrats.
"It was regarded as a political act on the part of the Joint Center, {Wilson} met the criticism very effectively by himself organizing a symposium on urban renewal, "Banfield says. He calls Wilson's handling of the situation "rather statesmanlike," the type of performance that makes people think of him as a possible dean.
More recently, Wilson served a crucial role in helping, bring the Core Curriculum to fruition in the 1970s, acting as chairman of the task force that drew up the basic outlines of the liberal education program, In general, says one Harvard official the professor is seen as someone to go to for advice when major problems crop up.
For all his skills, some say Wilson's image fair or not as an outspoken handliner rubs some
people the wrong way in a more ideologically liberal Faculty. He is regarded by some as a "friend of the cops, a hard-hat guy," one scholar says.
Such an image probably stems from Wilson's prominent role on the Faculty's disciplinary process in the turbulent period of the late '60s and early '70s, as well as his participation in the so called "Conservative Caucus" of professors