A Review of Hiring Plan Is Not Likely, Bok Says

President Bok said yesterday it is "unlikely" that Harvard's affirmative action plan will be subjected to a new review. His remarks came in response to a petition protesting the current plan and calling for "a firmer commitment to the hiring of women on the faculty."

The petition, circulated by the Currier House Women's Group, was signed by 1940 members of the Harvard community, including 32 faculty members, and was sent to Bok last Thursday. Copies of the petition have also been sent to President Horner, Dean Rosovsky, Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to Bok, and Caspar W. Weinberger '38, secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

The petition states that a student-faculty committee should be formed to review Harvard's current affirmative action plan which was approved by HEW last fall.

"The present situation in which 14 of the tenured faculty members are women is unacceptable," the petition states. "Under Harvard's recently approved affirmative action plan this number would be increased after three years to a total of 20 women professors in a university faculty of 776."

Not Much Thought

Bok said yesterday that he had received a copy of the petition but has not yet given much thought to the formation of a committee. He said that he would "like to explore the issues with the Currier House Women's Group to see if they know what the plan is all about," before he makes any definite decisions about the review of the plan.

"Holding extended debates like this one does not answer any questions," Bok said. "We've got to do some hard thinking that goes beyond whether they're male chauvinists in this-or-that Department to get to the real roots of the matter."

Natalie L. Wexler '76, a member of the Currier House women's group, said yesterday that the hiring of junior and tenured female faculty members should be proportionate to the number of women applying for these positions. The present affirmative action plan "falls short of this," she said.

Phyllis Keller, equal employment officer of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said yesterday that 20 per cent of next year's junior faculty will be female and that this figure is proportionate with the applicant pool.

"There are problems however at the tenured level," she said. "Proportionately, more women apply for tenured positions than receive them."

"We can see the impact that the hiring guidelines have had by the number of junior appointments which are going to women," Keller said. "Harvard's affirmative action plan is a very effective means of stopping discrimination on the basis of sex and is therefore not inadequate," she said.

Keller said that she sees no need for the faculty to review the plan and that she was in agreement with the resolution passed by the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life last week.