Skocpol Tenure Decision Postponed

President Bok will delay a ruling on tenuring sociologist Theda Skocpol for as much as three years while be studies her record as a scholar and reviews the "needs and priorities" of the Sociology Department.

Bok's decision, announced yesterday by Phyllis Keller, dean for academic planning, will end, at least for the moment, a headline-grabbing tenure battle that began last fall when the Sociology department voted not to tenure Skocpol. She claimed sex discrimination in the case--a charge later upheld by a review panel--and Bok appointed an ad hoc committee to consider her tenure request. At that time Bok also announced he would make the final decision himself sometime this summer.

The delay is "neither a positive or a negative" reflection on Skocpol, a spokesman for President Bok said yesterday. Instead, Bok concluded there "were divisions of opinion about her scholarly work" and about Sociology department practices, and "that enough information was not available," the spokesman said. Bok was unavailable for comment.

Big Brother is Watching You

Bok will continue to monitor Skocpol's scholarly progress, and will make the final decision on tenure for the former associate professor, the spokesman said. The case drew front-page stories and editorials in papers across the nation this spring.

Skocpol, currently working at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies, and scheduled to take a tenured post at the University of Chicago in the fall, said yesterday she was "pleased" with Bok's decision. "It's fine with me. I agree the delay is a reasonable way to conclude the matter at this point," Skocpol said.

"I'm also pleased President Bok has taken the initiative himself to bring the issue of my tenure up again within the next three years." Skocpol said.

The delay may in some ways simplify her career plans. Skocpol said, since it will give her several years at Chicago before there is even a chance she will leave.

Bok's decision on Skocpol's tenure does not resolve the other issue in the case--whether or not the Sociology Department discriminated against her on the basis of sex.

The discrimination charges were "separated out" from the consideration of her personal fitness for tenure following a late spring review. Skocpol said.

That review, conducted by stanley H. Hoffman. Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France. Barbara Rosenkrantz, professor of the History of Science, and Hendrik Houtthaker, Lee Professor of Economics, concluded on a 2-1 vote that sex discrimination influenced the department's decision not to tenure Skocpol.

Affirmative Action

After that report. Dean Rosovsky asked another panel of University administrators to examine the Sociology Department's affirmative action record. Rosovsky said yesterday he expected a final report from that panel "soon," but declined further comment.

Members of that panel, including. Thomas Crooks, special assistant to Dean Rosovsky, and Nancy Randolph, assistant to the President for affirmative action, were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Skocpol said yesterday she "suspect(ed) the University will never comment one way or another on the results" of that investigation.

After the ruling by Rosenkrantz. Houtthaker and Hoffmann, Bok appointed an ad hoc committee--whose membership University officials have refused to disclose--and charged it with reviewing Skocpol and reaching a recommendation on whether she should be tenured.

The spokesman for Bok, who asked not to be identified, refused to say yesterday if the ad hoc committee had recommended that Skocpol either be granted or denied tenure. "In his view, the recommendation of the committee was not conclusive," the spokesman said.

Skocpol said she knew what the ad hoc committee had recommended, but she declined to divulge the information.

She added that she and Bok had exchanged "a couple" of letters with Bok during the summer. She would not say if Bok had altered his position as a result of letters, stating only that they "clarified things."

Bok's review of the Sociology Department will cover "needs and priorities for the future" and their effect on, among other things, tenured appointments, Bok's spokesman said. The review was "precipitated but not caused" by the Skocpol case, the spokesman said.

Mission Impossible

James A. Davis, chairman of the Sociology Department, declined to comment on the delay, but said a review of the department would find it to be "dangerously small, with excellent people and a lack of consensus as to its mission."

"We only have about a half-dozen senior people," Davis said. "We do not have a party line of an integrated" concept of the field, he added. A review of the department would not uncover sexism, he added.

Bok's decision on Skocpol will be based on work done during the next three years as well as her scholarly accomplishments in the past. Bok's spokesman said. Best known for her award-winning States and Social Revolutions. Skocpol said she was aware her future writings would come under close scrutiny.

"I would, say I'm on the spot," she said. "But I was never planning to lay down and play dead as a scholar. I was always planning to produce more work," she added