Two More Say Goodbye To Harvard

The distinguished and august Harvard Faculty is running into a new problem: defectors. This week Martin M. Shapiro, professor of Government, and Richard F. Thompson, professor of Psychology, announced they would leave Harvard at the end of this year.

They join Seymour Martin Lipset, professor of Government and Social Relations, who said last week that he "might be" in Stanford come fall. Sources said yesterday that Lipset is reconsidering the move; neither he nor Stanford would comment.

The reasons for the sudden spate of resignations is unclear. In the past, Harvard's resources, salaries and historical pre-eminance were compelling attractions, and Cambridge was a quieter, less crime-ridden place to be. The academic industry in the U.S. was so much smaller then that a handful of universities could easily dominate the profession.

But in the last 30 years, changes in social and economic conditions brought a transformation in American university life. More students go to college. More universities--especially state-funded schools--have grown in enrollment and in prestige. The field has open to more women. And many university cities have become more urbanized, less attractive places to live.

Outgoing professors say they prefer to live on the West Coast, or that they fear crime, or that they can get more pay elsewhere--an American Association of University Professors study released this week showed a 7.6-per-cent drop in real wages of Harvard Faculty.

If the trend continues, Harvard should expect fewer people to spend the whole of their professional lives in Cambridge.