Safran's Bid for Council Slot Fails

Nadav Safran, the professor who resigned his position as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies after an investigation of his handling of two CIA grants, has failed in his bid to snag a spot on the steering committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Safran, who holds a Government Department chair, competed against the three other tenured social scientists in a race which guaranteed representation to the humanities, natural sciences and social scientists. Roderick MacFarquhar of the Government Department, and Brendan A. Maher of the Psychology Department won the positions set aside for tenured social scientists. The vote tabulation was not revealed.

Had his faculty colleagues elected him, Safran would have sat on the council during its upcoming discussions of rules pertaining to national intelligence agency sponsorship, a review prompted by the professor's own use of CIA funds.

Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence's investigation of the CIA links, completed last December, probed Safran's acceptence of CIA funds for both a Harvard-sponsored conference and independent research for a recently published book on Saudi Arabia. The report found Safran had violated Harvard rules in failing to disclose CIA funding for an October conference on Islamic fundamentalism at the Faculty Club.

The announcement of Safran's defeat comes amid speculation that he may be contemplating departing Harvard. According to a source close to the professor, Safran has abandoned an attempt to win a temporary appointment at a University in France and is currently negotiating with the University of California at San Diego to teach there next year.

In contrast to the behind-the-scenes campaigning practiced by other council aspirants, Safran is reported to have run the most aggressive campaign in memory, sending correspondence to a large number of faculty members.

According to faculty members that aggressive campaigning backfired, costing the professor support. "I think many people did not appreciate the idea of his nominating himself," said one senior Government Department member who asked not to be identified.

"He wanted to get some type of endorsement or vote of confidence or something," a Harvard professor said yesterday.

In his only comment to The Crimson in several months, Safran said of his Faculty Council bid: "I don't see that I need any vote of confidence."