In addition, Spence has been reviewing thebread and butter of the College's dailybusiness--undergraduate education. Associate Deanfor Undergraduate Education David Pilbeam says hehas been conducting a department by departmentcurriculum review of advising, teaching fellowsand course offerings.

And, always the scholar, Spence also analyzedthe demographic and economic trends which willaffect faculty hiring in the coming decades. Hisconclusion--that the only way for Harvard toremain competitive was for FAS to tenure more ofits own junior faculty--led to what he hopes willhis most substantial contribution as dean.

If all this has the ring more of a BusinessSchool case study or an Economics Departmentjournal article than a blueprint for the deanshipof what is arguably the most watched faculty inthe nation, then it is not surprising givenSpence's background.

After graduating from Princeton, Spenceembarked on a stellar academic career earning aname for himself as a prolific scholar who wroteon such topics as industrial organization,imperfectly competitive markets and the theory of"signalling"--which shows how consumers often makepurchasing decisions based on superficialcharacteristics.

"He is unusual in that he has all the talentsof a highly mathematical theoretician but he issimultaneously very much interested in practicalmatters of economics and business administration,"says Schelling, now Littauer professor ofpolitical economy at the Kennedy School.

Spence held a joint appointment between theEconomics Department and the Business School,demonstrating, according to Schelling, thediversity of his scholarship.

Deanship as Case Study

"I think one of the reasons he wanted to becomedean was so that he could practice what he hadbeen studying," says Schelling.

Spence's only previous administrativeexperience had been as chair of the EconomicsDepartment from 1983 till he became dean, and hehad not made a name for himself in that capacity,professors say.

"He was a very effective department chair insomewhat the same style," says James S.Duesenberry, Maier professor of money and banking."He was very effective but he wasn't verynoticeable."

Spence, though might think that a fittingdescription of both his Ec Department tenure andhis deanship.

Despite his extensive study of Harvard's juniorprofessors, Spence has avoided rhetoric orsweeping statements about the need to improve thelot of untenured professors. Instead, he quietlydismantled the old Graustein system, a rigidformula which for decades had determined how manysenior-level appointments a department could makeand when.

Spence's plan is designed to increase thechances junior professors have at internalpromotion to tenure, but he says that Harvard hasenough institutional inertia that it will probablytake another five years before his reforms beginto have a noticeable effect.

Like many of Spence's initiatives his juniorfaculty plan has left many faculty membersquestioning whether anything is really changing.

"I don't think he has gone back on his word, Isimply think he hasn't been powerful enough," saysone department chair who asked to remainanonymous. "His heart is in the right place. He isjust not really making points."