"After lengthy discussion with the academicdeans, there has been recognition that thedepartment is not serving the students' bestinterest," Knowles said.

Yesterday Buell echoed Knowles, saying, "In myopinion, its possible for a committee structure toserve the needs of the undergraduates quitewell...I will try to ensure that Harvardundergraduates continue the study of linguisticsin substantial ways."

Derfner, who met with Wolff and Knowles, saidhe was not as pleased with their responses, whichhe said were vague save for Wolff's comment that adistinguished visiting linguist would be coming toHarvard next fall.

"I basically wanted to ask them questions,"said Derfner. "The problem was that the morespecific my questions got, the more vague theiranswers got."

The main questions raised by students andprofessors this week are logistical andintellectual: What kind of committee will beinstituted? How will the basic linguistic coursesbe taught? And will this, in effect, mean theimpoverishment of linguistics at Harvard?

The answers are not yet clear, but anadvisory committee formed this fall intends toprovide them.

According to current University rules, if adepartment is dissolved, it must be replaced by anundergraduate degree committee, a graduate degreecommittee, or an interdisciplinary degreecommittee.

Opponents of the change say theinterdisciplinary committee is the worst optionbecause it would not have the authority to assignany formal degree to either undergraduates orgraduates.

"The exact one of these paths remains to berecommended," says Buell, a member of the advisorycommittee. The advisory committee, chaired byProfessor of Philosophy Warren D. Goldfarb '69,expects to make its recommendation this spring.

And it has been a while--almost fourdecades--since Harvard had to choose another pathfor a department.

"The action is quite unusual," says GraduateSchool of Arts and Sciences Administrative DeanJohn B. Fox Jr. '59. "The last time a departmentceased to be, according to lore, was theDepartment of Geography, 30 or 40 years ago...Thisdoesn't happen much."

"It's a healthy thing for an institution toshow willingness to reexamine and alter itsexisting structure from time to time," says Buell,who also referred to the change as quite unusual."It is a combination of phasing down in one sensebut a metamorphosis in another."

The reallocation of linguistic resources willbe incorporated into other departments such asclassics, English, romance languages, Slavic, NearEastern languages and civilizations, psychologyand computer science, Wolff said in a letter sentto all members of the department during thesummer.

"We have many more resources within the Facultyof Arts and Sciences...and many more facultyinterested [in linguistics] than are brought tobear," said Knowles. "We are concerned with usingthese resources as best we can."

The administration has cited a"multiplicity of problems" that prompted thedecision to transform the department, but deanshave not been clear on what "problems" beset thedepartment.