Manuscript Was the Work of Kearns, Government Faculty Votes in Meeting

The Government Department voted last week to affirm its belief that Doris H. Kearns, associate professor of Government, received no "under or improper help" in preparing the manuscript that she submitted to the department last fall before it nominated her for tenure.

The vote came during a Wednesday meeting with Dean Rosovsky that members of the department said yesterday was not a reconsideration of its October decision to grant Kearns tenure.

Noted Allegations

In a statement released by James Q. Wilson, chairman of the Government Department, the senior members of the department were said to have taken note of "various allegations" that Kearns "was not the sole author of the manuscript" by an apparent reference to editorial assistance Kearns received from Michael Rothschild, a fiction writer, for about $8000.

Rosovsky called the meeting, members of the department said last week, in light of publicity regarding Kearns's attempt to terminate her contract with Basic Books, for publication of the involved manuscript, a 480-page book about former President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In late April Kearns signed another contract--calling for an advance of $1,30,000 more than her Basic Books advance--with Simon & Schuster, for a book about Johnson the intends to write jointly with her finance, Richard N. Goodwin, a former aid to Johnson. Basic Books has since used Kearns, Goodwin, Simon & Schuster and Goodwin's literary agent.

Members of the department's senior faculty said that the decision to release a statement regarding the book's authorship was the only vote the faculty members took in the meeting, and that the meeting did not involve reconsideration.

"That matter didn't come up for discussion," Martin L. Kilson Jr., professor of Government, said yesterday.

John D. Montgomery, professor of public administration, said, "We really didn't tell him [Rosovsky] to do anything on that [the tenure] matter."

"It is on his [Rosovsky's] desk that matters now rest," Wilson said.

The faculty members all decided to discuss further the substance of the meeting, and Rosovsky refusal any comment on the matter.

Seloman Agreement

"This is a case whose we part of set around a table and made a very Seloman agreement" not to comment publicity, Montgomery said.

President Bok said yesterday that it is doubtful that Kearns's nomination could be reviewed by the Board of Overseas and that Corporation at their meetings next week, assuming Rosovsky approved her candidacy.

Kearns was expected to receive her appointment effective this June, and Bok said that if the governing boards do not make their review until September, as appointment could be retroactive.

But he added, "if the Government Department and the dean did reach the decision and if they made a special request that we expedite the appointment [next week] and if it was at all physically possible, then we would do our best to comply."

Wilson, too, indicated that he has been told that the status of the Kearns appointment made the nominations "too late to meet the overseas' agenda."

Wilson's statement, which he said was approved by Rosovsky, said that the department unanimously endorsed the "view" that the manuscript the faculty members read last fall "was entirely [the work] of Dr. Kearns."

"When one of our colleagues is assaulted in reputation in the press," Montgomery said, "it does requires that we take a position regarding her reputation."

Spokesmen for Kearns and for Basic Books said Saturday that no decision in the New York suit is in sight.