Mideast Professor Ajami Declines Harvard's Offer

Fouad Ajami, an expert on Middle East politics whose opinions were widely quoted during the Gulf War, has declined Harvard's offer of a lifetime appointment, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said yesterday.

Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a regular commentator for CBS News on Middle Eastern affairs, had been negotiating with Harvard since last spring.

Government Department Chair Robert O. Keohane said earlier this fall that Ajami was likely to accept an offer from the University. But yesterday Keohane said Ajami decided against moving, citing his reluctance to give up his work with CBS.

Keohane said that Ajami was unwilling to take on the heavy teaching and research load that the University requires. Ajami currently teaches only two graduate sections at Johns Hopkins.

"He would have less opportunity to be a commentator on television and to travel at will," Keohane said. "Harvard makes substantive demands of its faculty...He had to make a choice between two ways to live his life."

Knowles said that he was disappointed with Ajami's decision to remain at Johns Hopkins.

"I tried to get him to delay his decision. He was saying 'no,' and I tried to say 'I won't accept it,'" Knowles said. "But sadly he said no."

Knowles said Ajami informed him of the his decision early this month, prior to Ajami's trip to cover the Mideast peace talks in Madrid for CBS.

"I belive he would have been a marvelous addition, but I believe he may have worried about necessary restraints of being a professor at Harvard," Knowles said.

Ajami could not be reached at his New York residence yesterday.

Citizenship Problem

Ajami's decision comes at a time when an unusual amount of attention is being focused on the amount of time high-profile scholars spend away from Harvard.

After the offer was extended to Ajami, some scholars speculated that he might spend more time shuttling between Washington, D.C. and Cambridge rather than concentrating on research and teaching.

Last spring, the Corporation requested that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences create a more formalized way of keeping track of its members' commitments outside Harvard.

Discussion of the larger issue of faculty "citizenship" has blossomed at the University since the recent release of the annual report of former acting Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky.

Rosovsky said in the report, which was based on anecdotal observation, that it was his belief that "there has been a secular decline of professorial civic virtue in FAS."

In the report, Rosovsky raised concerns about faculty teaching obligations and absences from Cambridge. "I do have the impression that, for a significant minority of our faculty, the sum of their efforts outside Harvard is greater than their efforts inside Harvard," Rosovsky wrote.

The section of the report that has drawn the most fire is the former dean's recommendation for establishing reporting systems on faculty members.

In the report, Rosovsky proposed the creation of a data base on faculty members. Under his plan, this would indicate professors' past teaching loads, the number of graduate students they advise, committee assignments and other information. In addition, Rosovsky suggested the creation of a FAS commis- sion to determine what obligations of professorial citizenship should be.

Rosovsky stressed that he did not want to create a "Big Brother" in University Hall or an unnecessary bureaucracy but said he felt some reform was necessary.

These proposals have created some nervousness among faculty members, who say such changes are not warranted.

"We don't want to go into a violent reporting structure. "It's not clear we have a problem," Cellular and Developmental Biology Department chair Walter Gilbert said in an interview last week.

Few Top Scholars

Ajami was being sought to fill the post left vacant when Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Nadav Safran retired last year.

Keohane said that because there are few top senior scholars working in modern Middle Eastern affairs, the department would not be able to make another offer soon.

But Keohane added that the department is considering bringing in a visiting professor in Middle East politics.

"We are working on that actively," said Keohane. "We want someone teaching in that area because it is important.