The Linguistics department will keep its current status as a department and not be reduced to a committee, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles announced yesterday.

Knowles also reported to the Faculty Council that Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology Michael S. Flier will take over as Linguistics department chair July 1.

"I think it will have a very positive effect, not only at Harvard," Flier said of the decision to maintain the department, "but also for linguistics all over the country."

"There was a lot of concern," Flier said, "because linguistics has a long tradition at Harvard."

The decision came after the April 5 recommendations of an advisory committee which examined how the department could be changed to a committee.

Knowles established the advisory committee lastfall, setting off a string of complaints bylinguistics concentrators at Harvard and linguistsnationwide.

The advisory committee did not address whetherthe department should actually become a committeebut instead discussed how such a move would beimplemented, said committee chair and Professor ofPhilosophy Warren D. Goldfarb '69.

"Presumably what happened was that afterreading the report, the dean decided not toconvert the department into a committee," Goldfarbsaid. "It seems to be a good direction."

After receiving the report of the advisorycommittee, Knowles also said departmental statusremained the best alternative.

"The implication of their findings is that awell-functioning department would better serve ourinstructional needs than any of the alternativesconsidered," Knowles said.

Along with the assurance of departmentalstatus, the Linguistics department will alsoreceive two new senior faculty appointments, Fliersaid.

"They have committed the University to twosenior appointments," Flier said, "which is a verystrong commitment and a strong signal thatLinguistics is alive and well and moving on."

"In these hard times, Harvard decided thatindeed the enterprise is worthwhile," Flier said.

Flier said he hopes that a search committee forthe first new position will begin meeting thissummer. The committee will include three membersfrom outside the University and two members fromHarvard, including Flier, who will serve as chair.

"We might hope to get someone here by the fallof '95, in the best possible scenario," Flier saidof the search for the first candidate.

Linguistics concentrator Sara K. LaRoche '95said Wednesday's decision came as a positive step.

"I'm definitely happy that they're keeping it adepartment," LaRoche said. "All the students wantthe department to stay as a department."

But LaRoche also said she was "disappointed"that two junior faculty members are leaving thisyear with only one of those positions being fillednext year.

"I don't know who's going to be filling thatposition, but I'm sure there's going to be somefield that's unrepresented," she said. "One ofthose fields is probably going to suffer."

Still, LaRoche said, "there's a lot of strongunity within the department" among undergraduates,graduate students and faculty members.

And Flier also said he thought the organizedopposition to committee status "made a bigimpression on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"The possible threat of it dissolvingimmediately got all of the philologists andlinguists in the campus and in the countryinvolved," Flier said.

"It's really one of the essential disciplines,"Flier said. "All of us, whether we're in thehumanities o