Harvard will go to federal court today to explain the "inadvertent" destruction of tenure deliberation records that a U.S. District Court judge ordered it to provide in a sex discrimination suit against the University.

Harvard lawyers will come before Judge David Woodlock in an informal pretrial session to discuss the case of former Associate Professor of Industrial Marketing Barbara Bund Jackson, who claimed in a suit filed in 1984 that the Business School denied her tenure because of her sex.

In a letter sent one week ago to Jackson's attorney, the General Counsel's office stated that it cannot fulfill a court order to produce documents detailing histories of tenure decisions at the Business School. The office said in the letter that the documents, which the University usually saves, were mistakenly destroyed in April of this year, attorney Evan T. Lawson, said yesterday.

Lawson said he had hoped the papers would show that male professors with qualifications comparable to Jackson's have been granted tenure at the Business School.

"Some papers were destroyed in the routine processing of old files," said Harvard's Deputy General Counsel Martin Michaelson, who characterized the problem as an "administrative slip-up."

"We take anything of this kind seriously," he said, "but there are enormous quantities of papers in the world, and some of them get destroyed."

But Lawson questioned the University's explanation. "We found out about [the destruction] shortly after the judge ordered them to give us the records," he said. "I find that a startling coincidence."

Harvard's disclosure comes less than three months after U.S. District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered the University to provide Jackson with the documents. Garrity's ruling followed attempts by Harvard to have the documents removed from the case.

At today's "status conference" at the Federal District Courthouse in Boston, lawyers from both sides will meet with Woodlock to discuss the missing records. Status conferences are regularly scheduled to allow the judge to ensure that all pretrial obligations are being met.

Brought Suit in 1984

Jackson, who taught for 11 years before her bid for a permanent post was turned down in 1983, is seeking tenure, damages, and lawyers' fees in her suit against the University.

The suit also contains allegations that the School and its dean, John J. MacArthur, condoned sexual harassment of womenstudents and faculty, as well as setting quotasfor the admission of women to the Master ofBusiness Administration Program.

Business School officials yesterday referredinquiries to the General Counsel's office, whichhas said the case is "without merit."

Lawyers from both sides said they were notaware of any past sex discrimination case that hadbeen taken to court by Harvard faculty members.

Because the suit is still in the "discovery"stage--during which attorneys marshall evidence inthe case--no ruling has been made on thediscrimination issue. Lawson said that because ofthe missing documents, a trial date may be monthsaway.

Relevance Disputed

Lawyers for the two sides said they disagree onthe importance of the papers which contain reviewsof tenure candidates by the Business School'stenure committee. The missing documents includethe mid-1970s and continue at least until theearly 1980s, Lawson said, but it is unclear if allpapers during the period were destroyed.

Michaelson said yesterday that the papers inquestion do not contain discussions of the Jacksondecision itself, and said that Harvard was beingasked to provide marginally relevant information."There's a point at which these pretrial discoverydemands can be a fishing expedition," he said."The net is being stretched very wide by Ms.Jackson."

But Jackson's lawyers say that the papers maylend crucial support to their contention that maleprofessors with comparable qualifications havebeen granted tenure at the Business School. In hisruling, Garrity upheld Jackson's request.

Disagreement has also arisen over theUniversity's ability to replace the papers. WhileMichaelson says that Harvard will be able to"reconstruct" the necessary files from otherdocuments, Lawson says he may have to speakdirectly to members of the Business School tenurecommittee.

In the suit, Jackson had also asked that theidentities of the members of the tenure committeewho were involved in her decision be revealed.Garrity denied her request on August 12.Michaelson hailed this portion of the judge'sruling. "The tenure process depends on evaluatorsbeing able to speak their mind candidly,"Michaelson said