According to Assistant Dean for Academic Planning Joseph J. McCarthy, there are now four tenured professors and four junior professors in the Faculty. Gomes and other professors whose appointments are held jointly with other faculties, do not figure in the Faculty count. Neither do Faculty instructors or lecturers.

Hiring more minority professors is definitely a high priority, according to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

"We are concerned to make our affirmative action programs really effective, and there are, indeed, some new initiatives under discussion that are aimed at increasing the number of minorities, and of women, on our faculty," Knowles says.

University affirmative-action officials attribute Harvard's small Black faculty representation to a number of factors, most prominent among them the lack of a sizeable hiring pool.

"We want both to compete for top Black scholars and also to recruit Black graduate students into out own program so as to increase the pool," says Associate Dean for Affirmative Action Marjorie Garber.

Matory attributes part of the dearth to "special financial exigencies" facing many potential minority Ph.D.'s. "It's hard to decide to go into academia when you know it's unlikely you'll earn much money for ail of the years you study," he says.

Harvard will begin trying to change the pool and attack the "pipeline problem" at its root, says Associate Vice President for Affirmative Action James Hoyte. Hoyte is formulating a new initiative on the issue scheduled to be unveiled this spring.

But even before such plans become reality, some professors say that Harvard could take other actions to improve its Black faculty representation.

Matory says Harvard's infrequent tenures of junior professors is also a deterrent for qualified candidates.

Appiah attributes the death partly to the historical legacy of racial barriers.

"If you've had systematic barriers until a period that is within the professional lives of many members of the faculty, it's not surprising that doesn't change overnight from being all white and all male," he says.

Black faculty members express concern with the potential exclusivity of the University's sources for faculty recommendations as a concern. Departments often solicit names from colleagues in other schools, and an "old boys network" of a few high-level institutions can exclude candidates from lesser-known venues.

Harper says "massive mailings to standard feeders" cannot always provide the diversity the FAS seeks.

Many times, these letters find "duplicates of the scene at Harvard," he says. "People say 'gosh, gee, I don't know any qualified minority applicants in that field.'"

"It has to do with how professional networks are established," Harper says, "and how they reproduce themselves."