"That meeting was Ground Zero for Expos," saysa former teacher. "After that, everythingchanged."

Richard Marius was teaching history atthe University of Tennessee when Harvard tappedhim for the Expos director's job in 1978.

A well-known professional writer and novelist,Marius' job was to impose standards and restorethe University's confidence in a program that bymost accounts was failing its students.

Marius and the administrators he hired havedone much to accomplish those goals. Sue A.Lonoff, who was an Expos preceptor for eight yearsand is now a lecturer offering an Expos courseevery spring, says Marius' chief accomplishmenthas been the establishment of official standards."When I came in, there really were no criteria forevaluating teachers," says Lonoff. "There was verylittle way to decide who was to stay and who wasto go."

Marius changed all that, but eventually, thestress of administering the department soon tookits toll on the director. He took a sabbaticalduring the academic year 1987-88, and Sommers camein to run the program while he was gone.

Sommers receives praise from many teachers atthe time for being a good listener. Many remember'87-'88 as the last happy year before morale inExpos took a turn for the worse.

Perhaps most symptomatic of the confrontationalattitude that emerged in Expos is the story ofDavid Heller. During the first week of March 1989,Heller, a first-year teacher in the program,abruptly resigned after a mix-up over Marius'scheduled visit to his class. Marius went to thewrong room, and when Heller returned to the Exposoffice, witnesses say, then-program administratorJulia A. Hendrix erupted at the teacher with noapparent provocation.

It seemed like a minor disagreement at first.Shortly after the incident, however, Marius wroteHeller a letter accusing the teacher of verballyattacking Hendrix. Heller decided to resign afterreceiving the letter. Marius, who never discussedthe incident with Heller, now says Heller wasgrowing "emotionally unstable" at the time.

So the director acted. He left a message onHeller's answering machine saying he would becalling the Harvard police. The next day, anundercover University police officer was posted atthe door to Heller's classroom to make sure theteacher did not return.

More disturbing than the decisions madeby the Expos administration, teachers say, wasUniversity Hall's unwillingness to do anythingabout it. The faculty committee, they note, backedMarius' move to the four-year rule in an effort toreestablish administrative control over Expos. Andboth of Marius' bosses in the last six years--Deanfor Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell andBuell's predecessor David Pilbeam--are aware ofMarius's problems in dealing with employees,sources say.

In nearly all matters, Pilbeam and otherspublicly deferred to Marius and Sommers. Two yearsago, after proposing to raise the four-year limitto five or six years, Pilbeam backed down afterMarius sent him a letter opposing the change.

Privately, the administration and Expos blameeach other.

"Richard has brought so much angst and angerupon himself. It's tragic, because he's a verytalented man," says an administration source."He's not equally gifted as an administrator, andmost of his problems begin with him."

Sources familiar with the Sommers-Mariusrelationship say she has attempted to take awaysome control from Marius, and in some cases hasserved, in the words of one teacher, "as a humanshield" between him and the staff. In someinstances, Sommers has convinced Marius toapologize to staff members he has slighted,sources say.

But some question her fitness to administer theprogram fairly.