Over the past year, graduate students said, Skjaervo has been largely successful in resolving the problems of the department, particularly those of the graduate students.

All of the five issues of "immediate concern" which the students raised in their December 15, 1994 meeting have been addressed by Skjaervo, students said.

Skjaervo said he sought to address student complaints about the vagueness of the department's requirements and insistence that a thesis prospectus, reading list and other general requirements be spelled out.

The new department chair met with each student to offer advice and provide them with "a better framework for their studies."

"[W]e have intensively occupied ourselves with our students," Skjaervo said.

Since Skjaervo became department chair, the department hired professor of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Leonard Willem J. van der Kuijp, who will become department chair next spring.

"Everything has been in a state of quiet," said one graduate student.

"Professor Skjaervo tightened things up a lot, and Professor Witzel receded into the background," said another.

One graduate student said some problems remain unsolved because Witzel remains a tenured professor in the department and sits on the oral exam committee before which all students must appear in order to obtain their dissertation.

"You ask if things are okay," the student said. "I would have to say they aren't."--Jonathan A. Lewin contributed to the reporting of this story.

I am quite content if I can do my research and my teaching.  Michael E. J Witzel

You ask me if things are okay. I would have to say they aren't.  a Sanskrit graduate student

He's a good scholar. He's not a good administrator.  a Sanskrit graduate studen