"I agree the faculty should be in Cambridge and accessible," says Garber. "[But] the Corporation is thinking of a 9 to 5 workday that is not academic. As an academic, I work every day, work that is often not at the office."

In addition, they say that although there are some professors who are bad citizens, many of their colleagues do fulfill their citizenship duties. "[Citizenship] is a matter of give and take in any department," says Vendler. "It all depends on good will. For the most part, people have been generous [with their time]."

Garber says that a reporting system "is not advisable. It is not the best way to achieve the goals. We need to have clear guidelines for people to expect the faculty to abide by them."

The definition of citizenship is unclear, some scholars say. They say that for certain fields, working and consulting in the private and public sectors are essential to scholarship. Therefore, they argue, activities such as consulting are difficult to categorize.

"There is a close connection between policy anaylsis, scholarship and policy advising," says Jeffrey D. Sachs, Stone professor of international trade. "Economics is an area where, because parts of it are heavily devoted to public policy issues, it is natural for Harvard involvement [in the public arena]."

Sachs is currently on a unpaid two-year leave of absence to study the economic transformations of the East European communist countries and the U.S.S.R. for the United Nations University.

"The work I was doing as an advisor to the Polish economists was so completely consuming, so, I took a full leave of absence," he says. "But I will be back in September."

Sachs says that his outside work enhances his scholarship and what he can offer to his students. "My basic philosophy is that part of the work is involved in actual problem solving," he says.

Similar problems exist for professors in many other fields. For scientists, their lab work is part outside activity, part research and part teaching, says Biology Department Chair Walter Gilbert.

"The real stress in the sciences is research," he says. "Science is very much like a trained apprenticeship. There is a much more intimate connection because students and you work together."

"In the sciences, to run a lab is an all-day, every day occupation," Gilbert says.

Back at the Ranch

Outside activities, however, are not the only concern. Harvard administrators say they are equally concerned with how professors spend their time in Cambridge.

Harvard's faculty has an international reputation. But among students, some scholars are merely seen from a distance and are often inaccessible to students. Rosovsky, in part jest, touched on the issue of inaccessibility when he said he too had a difficult time in reaching colleagues during the reading and exam periods.

"Faculty presence is extremely important during reading period and examination periods," he says. "These are precisely the times when students have pressing needs for interaction with their teachers, and in the past that was, I believe, a well-understood aspect of our social contract."