Skocpol's Return Draws Mixed Response

When former assistant professor of sociology Theda R. Skocpol decided to accept a tenure offer from Harvard last December, it marked the end of a controversy that included the filing of a sex discrimination suit and spanned five years and three universities.

Skocpol filed a grievance against the university in 1981, charging that the tenure process had discriminated against her on the basis of her sex. In an action not directly linked to the grievance, President Derek C. Bok granted her tenure in an unusual move three years later.

Department members disagree about how Skocpol's arrival this summer will affect the department, with some maintaining that she will be a major asset to Harvard sociology. Others argue that her arrival will be divisive and increase the conflict in the embattled department.

Skocpol, a qualitative sociologist who has done considerable work on the relationship between states and social revolutions, says, "I'm going to do my best to work effectively with a wide range of colleagues, and professionally, I'm sure I can."

"People don't have to be close personal friends to cooperate professionally," says the sociologist.

"Skocpol can keep a low profile," Department Chairman Aage B. Sorenson says, adding, "I've been in favor of her appointment all along, and if I thought it would increase the conflicts, I wouldn't have supported it."

But others fear that Skocpol will wreak further havoc in an already embroiled department.

"Skocpol will divide the department even more, because she's a very divisive person.

Wherever she has been there's always been conflict, " said Professor of Sociology Ezra Vogel.

In 1981, Skocpol filed a sex discrimination suit against Harvard, charging that the Sociology Department discriminated against her because of her sex when it voted not to recommend her for tenure.

One month earlier, in a 5-5 decision, the department had voted not to grant Skocpol tenure. Department members said at the time that they thought Skocpol's complaint of sex discrimination was groundless.

But two of the three members of a grievance committee set up to investigate the charge ruled that Skocpol's grievance was merited.

An ad hoc committee was then formed in order to evaluate Skocpol's scholarship, and the vote of the committee was split, according to sources in the department.

Bok then tabled the issue, but said that he would reconsider the issue three years later.

And three years later, Bok decided to offer Skocpol tenure, although the Harvard sociology department had never actually voted in favor of making Skocpol a member.

"In the end, Harvard tried to do the right thing, though it certainly wasn't a model of effective conflict resolution--it dragged on way too long," Skocpol says.

In the meantime, Skocpol had accepted a tenured position at the University of Chicago. The University of California at Berkeley also offerred Skocpol a tenured position.

Claude S. Fischer, chairman of the sociology department at the University of California at Berkeley, says that Skocpol actually committed to coming to Berkeley, and said that she would begin teaching as of this spring.

But last October, Fischer says, Skocpol broke her promise and said that she would not be coming to Berkeley after all.

In a letter to his department explaining Skocpol's act, Fischer wrote, "I am angered and sorry to report to you that this morning I received a call from Theda Skocpol saying that she will not be coming to Berkeley after all--neither in the long term nor even for the spring. I consider this a grossly unprofessional and unethical act."

"Not only does this mean that the department is left holding the bag on three Spring courses; that we 'used' up a slot for two years in this effort; that the energy of the faculty, staff, chair, deans, and officers of the University were wasted; that graduate students were misled in making their plans; that our efforts to protect her reputation were made a mockery; and so on--it is also an explicit violation of promises made, as she herself acknowledged to me," the letter continues.

Skocpol says that she decided to turn down Berkeley for a variety of personal reasons, including the fact that she has a bad back, and that the job possibilities in California for her husband, physicist William Skocpol, were not promising.

Sorenson says he did not think that the incident at Berkeley would affect Skocpol's ability to function at Harvard. "I don't think it will have any impact on her relationships with colleagues here," he says.