Knowles' approach, to shave away atexpenditures, was implemented through 6 percentcuts in departmental operating budgets thatRosovsky had imposed, in addition to such measuresas bulk purchasing to decrease costs andadjustment of financial aid to allow forinflation.

No Budget Committee

He deliberately did not appoint a committee torecommend changes without faculty consultation,Knowles says.

"I'm very glad we have not taken that routebecause I think it leads to tension anddivisiveness," he says.

The Faculty lacked a great deal ofbudget-related tension precisely because the deangained he trust of his colleagues, says Professorof the History of Religion and Islamic StudiesWilliam A. Graham.

Knolls was skilled at "making people feel thatwhat happens in the Faculty doesn't happen" by hiscommand, but "what the Faculty itself would arriveat with full consultation," says Graham, a memberof the Faculty Council.

And it was this collaborative approach toward avariety of issues, many professors say, thathelped make Knowles' first year a success.

"It's not an administrator talking to hisstaff, it's one colleague talking to others,"notes Professor of the Classics Gregory Nagy.

Knowles included the Faculty in decision-makingprocesses beyond budget considerations--in thesame way Rosovsky did two decades ago. Both deansspent their first years assembling a number ofcommittees and task forces staffed by facultymembers, Fox says.

But Fox says that while Rosovsky's task forceswere used primarily to gather information, many ofKnowles' committees--on ROTC, on uncapping theretirement age, on activity reporting--have beenattacking specific "problem" areas in search ofsolutions.

The ROTC committee requested more time toconsider a complicated issue. The retirementcommittee presented an interim report, suggestingpotential ways to encourage aging faculty membersto retire in full or in part. The activityreporting group developed a politically acceptableway for faculty members to record they way theyspend their time outside the University.

Knowles also assembled--and chairs--theEducational Policy Committee, a group designed toreview teaching, advising and the undergraduatecurriculum.

Such a committee has been needed for some time,says outgoing Dean of Undergraduate EducationDavid Pilbeam.

'No Signs of Cynicism'

Swamped with the work of two administrativeposts, Pilbeam, who is also director of thePeabody museum, says he considered stepping downfrom his associate deanship last year.