Good-Giving

THE HARVARD CAMPAIGN, some observers have said, may well determine whether Harvard will be able to continue training and employing the professors of tomorrow. Job prospects for would-be professors remain dismal, and federal budget cutbacks are likely to make the situation even worse.

So the recent gift of $7.5 million to endow 15 junior faculty positions is all the more important. The non-tenured associate professorships will keep young scholars in the academic professions when funding is particularly difficult for them to obtain. While the gift does not of itself create new positions, the Faculty should consider using the money freed up by the endowments to enlarge research opportunities for junior faculty. And in choosing scholars to benefit from increased research funding, the University should keep in mind its stated commitment to affirmative action.

The donor, John L. Loeb '24, has made enough money in investment banking to give the University about $12 million over the past 25 years. He has also spent some of it in questionable ways: the Federal Election Commission fined him in 1972 for illegal campaign contributions. But while we may not like some of the ways he chooses to spend his money, we think his recent gift quite appropriate. We hope his donation spurs other alumni with spare change in their pockets to think about the needs of Harvard's young--and often neglected--scholars. This area has not in the past been a magnet for glamorous multi-million dollar contributions--a fact illustrated, at least in part, by the plight of most current junior faculty members--but few are as important if Harvard is to remain the preeminent incubator of academic talent.