Dalton Still Unsure About Suit

Nearly a year after first filing a sexual discrimination suit against Harvard for not granting her tenure, former Law Professor Clare Dalton said this week she has still has not decided whether to pursue her case in court.

Dalton, who now teaches at North-eastern Law School, said she is waiting for the advice of Harvard law professors before determining if a lawsuit is the best way to air her concerns about the tenure process at the school.

"We are not dropping the complaint," Dalton said. "The question is if pursuing my case will be a good vehicle for continuing to work for diversity on the Harvard Law School faculty. That is something about which members of the faculty are still concerned."

The expert in contract law charges that she was denied tenure by the law faculty and President Bok both because of her left-wing politics and her gender.

But while Dalton has claimed that the faculty discriminated against her in part for her adherence to Critical Legal Studies (CLS), a radical school of legal thought, she said she did not want the courtroom to be a forum for a debate over CLS.

According to its adherents, CLS is concerned with the influence of society and culture on law, and the law's effect on the distribution of wealth and power. Dalton was the second CLS tenure-tracked professor denied a permanent post at the law school in three years.

"I don't want it to be a forum for the CLS debate," Dalton said.

Dalton said there is "no timetable" for the case. She said the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), a state agency which investigates discrimination complaints, is still reviewing the case, and that "we are going to give them more time."

Dalton's supporters at the Law School said they expected the discrimination suit to reach a trial, and that at such a hearing she would receive wide faculty support.

"I think that she'd be quite strongly supported," said Professor of Law David Kennedy. "My expectation is that it will be pursued."

Kennedy added that while the courts are "not the best forum, up to now, the University and the Law School haven't provided a forum."

Though the search for a successor to outgoing Dean James Vorenberg '49 has raised the issues of the number of women and minorities and CLS adherents on the faculty, Dalton said the appointment of a new dean--expected by the end of this semester--would not influence her decision.

"That's not something I've seen as making a difference," Dalton said. "Other people may have different views."