CLARIFICATION APPENDED

Theda Skocpol said last Tuesday that she was quitting her post as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) because she had accomplished what she set out to do when she accepted the position two years ago.

“It makes sense for incoming university and [Faculty of Arts and Sciences] leaders to recruit a new GSAS dean as an ongoing member of their future leadership team,” Skocpol said in a statement.

Behind the scenes, however, Skocpol’s resignation coincided with what appeared be a wave of uncertainty about her candidacy for the deanship of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), one of Harvard’s most powerful posts.

In Cambridge, Skocpol is known as a headstrong leader and discipline-defining scholar with an acute sense of Faculty politics.

But in recent weeks, the prospect of Skocpol’s promotion has stirred strong opposition among professors advising President-elect Drew G. Faust in her search for a new dean of the Faculty, according to an individual close to the faculty advisory committee and a senior FAS faculty member close to University administrators. Faust herself has expressed skepticism, the individuals said, perhaps sensing professors’ wariness.

Only last spring, Skocpol’s candidacy showed some promise when she rose to the top of Interim President Derek C. Bok’s list of potential candidates to lead Harvard’s flagship school, according to the sources. But when Bok floated Skocpol’s candidacy among faculty members and top administrators, he encountered strong resistance that forced him to reconsider, the individuals said.

In the end, Bok asked Jeremy R. Knowles, a chemist who had led FAS from 1991 to 2001, to return to University Hall for an encore.

The Crimson granted anonymity to the individuals because their relationships with University officials would be compromised if they were named. Skocpol declined to comment for this article, as did a Harvard spokesman.

With her announcement last week, it appears Skocpol’s years-long campaign to assume one of Harvard’s most influential jobs may not prove succesful.

‘A WOMAN ON A MISSION’
To some, Skocpol came to mirror the controversial president that she once opposed, in equal parts praised both for her brilliance as a researcher and derided for her authoritarian and divisive approach to leading.

Knowles, in characteristically circumspect fashion, referred to Skocpol’s leadership style in his letter on Tuesday as “gently unambiguous.”

Some, like Leverett Professor of Physics Gerald Gabrielse, came to respect Skocpol for that management style.

“Dean Skocpol was a very plainspoken and direct person who had a clear vision. It is sometimes easy to confuse that,” Gabrielse said. “By my lights, she was very direct, very blunt. I just don’t mind that.”

Gabrielse, a former physics chair and a member of Skocpol’s Graduate Policy Committee, praised the dean for her administrative zeal and efficiency.

“She was a woman on a mission to do whatever she could for the graduate students and for Harvard. She did that with gusto,” Gabrielse said.

According to History Department chair Andrew D. Gordon ’74, disagreement is a natural part of the job.

“Although I’ve disagreed with her on some specific issues that is the case of just about any department chair dealing with just about every dean.”

While Skocpol has been a vocal Faculty member, she has led what colleagues say is a quiet campaign to become the Faculty’s permanent dean.

In her pursuit, Skocpol seems to have had assistance from Bok. The interim president summoned Skocpol to lead the Task Force on Teaching and Career Development, providing her with a significant resume-boost and a highly visible soapbox upon which to address the Faculty.

“Theda Skocpol has done a truly remarkable job as dean of the Graduate School,” Bok said in a statement on Tuesday. “We owe her a great debt.”

PROVOCATEUR AND PROBLEM-SOLVER
Skocpol’s climb to the highest level of Harvard leadership has been defined by controversy.

In 1980, when she was denied tenure in the Sociology Department—where she had been an associate professor for five years—Skocpol alleged sexual discrimination, citing her gender as the reason why the department’s eleven male members turned down her candidacy.

Five years later, an investigation led by Bok, then in his first go at leading the University, found in favor of Skocpol’s claim. She was offered tenure and returned to Harvard from the University of Chicago.

“It was not a happy story,” Harrison C. White, a member of the Sociology Department at the time who voted against Skocpol’s tenure, said last spring about the affair.

Skocpol was appointed dean two decades later after anthropologist Peter T. Ellison resigned from the position over disagreements with then-president Summers.

In the Summers dust-up, Skocpol operated as both provocateur and problem-solver.

Skocpol told Summers at a February 2005 Faculty meeting that the president’s actions amounted to a “crisis of governance and leadership.”

At the same time, Skocpol along with Knowles and Libraries chief Sidney Verba ‘53 offered themselves up as a committee that could represent the Faculty in its relations with Summers and Harvard’s governing boards.

The self-described “little troika of a group” was widely criticized as undemocratic and as working to silence—not facilitate—debate.

With the dean search placed in Faust’s hands, some professors speculate that Knowles’ successor will be a male scientist both to provide proper balance to the female historian who will occupy Mass. Hall and to help assist in the direction of Harvard’s expansion of the sciences into Allston.

It seems, though, that personality and not gender or discipline may have halted Skocpol’s plans.

“Look at Harvard,” Knowles said in an interview prior to Skocpol’s resignation, “Male president, male provost, male dean. Look at Princeton. Female president, female provost, female dean. My only concern—and I’m sure that President-elect Faust thinks the same—is...that my successor should be someone who is going to be a very close colleague and work very well with President-elect Faust in shaping the future of the Faculty.”

In a statement last Tuesday, Faust endorsed Skocpol’s efforts as GSAS dean. “I hope still to benefit from her ideas and her thoughtful counsel going forward,” Faust said.

While Skocpol’s resignation suggests an unlikely future in Harvard administration, she is said to be considering significant leadership positions at other universities.

—Staff Writer Samuel P. Jacobs can be reached at jacobs@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff Writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu.

CLARIFICATION: The April 2 news analysis "Behind the Scenes, Skepticism Over Skocpol's Rise" did not completely represent the views of History Department chair Andrew D. Gordon '74 on the resignation of Theda Skocpol, dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In addition to acknowledging disagreements with the dean, Gordon said "I've overall been very impressed with the job she's done, and I'm sorry that she is stepping down."