"There is certainly a decrease in thecollective consciousness of the faculty becausethere's been a tremendous turnover among facultymembers, especially in the last ten years," saysEpps, who has been a Harvard administrator sincethe early 1960s.

Epps says Harvard's tendency to tenure outsidefaculty members adds to the trend.

"Now people need time to find their place andtheir voice, especially since so many are comingfrom the outside and come here with a range ofcollegial experiences," the dean says. "These takea while to coalesce into a single consciousness."

"These days, when you go to the Faculty Clubyou see a lot of people you don't know," says DeanK. Whitla, director of the office of instructionalresearch and evaluation in the Faculty of Arts andSciences. "There needs to be another locus forfaculty."

The World outside

The decline in professors' feeling ofresponsibility for the University may also belinked to their increasing identification with theworld outside Harvard.

For instance, in response to a question aboutthe role of faculty in Harvard administration,Warburg Professor of Ecnomics Emeritus JohnKenneth Galbraith says he "would advise askingsomeone who was actually involved in thegovernance of this great University."

The famed professor's response is typical ofthe scholars without Riesman calls the"independent entrepreneurs": top faculty memberswhose plaudits come from achievements outside theUniversity, not within it.

"Extramural involvement often identifiesHarvard professors more than teaching does," hesays. "I've often thought that Logan Airport is avery important part of Harvard."

It is easier for professors to findgratification through their contacts withcolleagues at other institutions than by teachingfirst-year survey classes, for instance.

"Collegiality is weakened because, for aHarvard professor, the outside world offers a lotsof heady praise: awards, recognition, intellectualstimulation and the esteem of professionalcolleagues," Herschbach says. "Internally, thereis less of that praise to be found."

Some attribute the growing presence of these"entrepreneurs" to Harvard's methods ofrecruitment and granting tenure.

"In the system of how Harvard chooses itsprofessors, looking specifically for the best inthe world, there shouldn't be surprise when thoseprofessors maintain close ties to the outsideworld where they are expected to flourish withtheir expertise," says Clowes Professor of ScienceHenry Ehrenreich.

Mansfield blames the professors' externalidentification partially on a shift during thecharged period of the late 1960s, when professorsbegan seeing their role as more overtly political.

"The faculty had succeeded in convincing theUniversity administration that it should aim atthe improvement of society and not be so detachedfrom the outside world," Mansfield says.