It was the best of times--and then the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom--and then the age of foolishness. It was Social Relations--and then it became Sociology.

In the 1950s, in the Golden Age of the Social Relations Department--which consisted of sociology as well as social psychology and cultural anthropology--Harvard's department was considered a national superpower, equally attractive to both faculty and students.

Today, faculty members paint a different picture of sociology at Harvard, saying that the department is grappling with disagreement over the proper focus of sociology as a discipline, less than ideal inter-personal relations among department members, and its small size.

Meanwhile, the sociology department may risk losing up to three of its 11 tenured faculty members, who are rumored to be considering leaving their lifetime posts at Harvard:

.Professor of Sociology Harrison C. White says he plans to leave Harvard to become chairman of the sociology department at the University of Arizona;

.Alessandro D. Pizzorno, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, says there is a 50-50 chance that he will accept tenure at the European University;

.Sociology Professor Orlando Patterson is weighing an offer from the University of Pennsylvania, according to sources who say he probably will not accept;

Professor of Sociology James A. Davis may be considering offers from other universities, observers say. But Davis adamantly denies any intention of leaving, saying that the rumors "have absolutely no basis in fact."

But despite these difficulties that have yet to be resolved, some faculty members say the next decade cannot be much worse than the last one.

Five years ago, Harvard's Sociology Department was in such turmoil that President Derek C. Bok decided to call for a special committee of top sociologists from around the country, in order to plot a course of action for the ailing department.

The committee decided that the department's biggest problem was that it was weak in mainstream, bread-and-butter sociology. Mainstream sociology, which can be either statistically or historically based, includes organizational studies, social psychology, political sociology, and sophisticated mathematical modeling.

Many of the department members, however, while highly regarded scholars, were interested in subjects considered on the periphery of sociology. The committee concluded that Harvard was especially weak in quantitative sociology and suggested that increasing the number of mainstream sociology professors, with a special effort to hire quantitative sociologists, would improve the department.

Bok tried to follow the committee's advice by offerring tenured positions at Harvard to three sociologists: Nancy Tuma, a professor at Stanford University; Edward Laumann, dean of social sciences at Chicago; and David Featherman of the University of Wisconsin. All three refused.

So Bok tried again, this time offerring four top scholars positions at Harvard. Three of the four turned down Harvard's offers, but Aage B. Sorenson, a top quantitative sociologist, accepted the position and came to Harvard two years ago to become the department's chair.

Generally, when an appointment needs to be made, a department chooses the professor it would like to hire. After appointing an ad hoc committee to evaluate the professor in question, Bok then decides whether or not to approve the recommendation.