Watkins' letter concludes: "In the future I hopethat if any student or *** member feels he or shehas a legitimate grievance or a potential sourceof grievance against another member of thisDepartment, that person will feel free to discussit with the chairman, at any time and in completeconfidence so that appropriate steps can be takento correct the situation."

According to Assistant Professor of LinguisticsJohn B. Whitman, who served on the complainant'sthesis evaluation committee, she filed the formalcomplaint after receiving unfavorable commentsfrom Kuno on her dissertation.

Following the lodging of the formal charge,Kuno discussed the matter with the departmentchairman and left his position on the thesisevaluation committee about two weeks ago, Whitmansaid.

The original thesis evaluation committee, whichconsisted of Kuno, Whitman and MIT professor KenHale, did not approve the thesis, the topic ofwhich is the theory of functional syntax and itsties to the Japanese language, Whitman said.

Watkins replaced Kuno on the evaluationcommittee, which then approved the dissertationfor a degree after she "made fairly major changeson her thesis," Whitman said.

Whitman said that he thought Kuno's criticismsof her thesis were justified academically. He alsosaid that Kuno was the thesis adviser of thecomplainant.

"At the time Susumo saw it, there wereextremely serious problems with the thesis,"Whitman said. "My feeling is that the commentswere justified on the scholarly content of thethesis."

Hale gave more favorable comments on the thesisthan Whitman or Kuno, Whitman said. Hale is inChina and could not be reached for comment.

Kuno taught this spring Linguistics 104,"Language and the Computer," and Linguistics 113,"Intermediate Syntax." He holds an A.B. and anA.M. degree from Tokyo University. He received aHarvard Ph.D. in 1964. He received a tenured postat Harvard in 1969 and has twiced served aschairman of the Linguistics Department