RECRUITMENT: THE ART OF THE DEAL

Harvard does use some of these tactics, and its negotiations regularly include research start-up costs and moving expenses. Rosovsky also writes of helping to get professors children into leading private schools.

But these weapons form just the tip of the iceberg. Most negotiating is done in private sessions with deans and other officials, and professors are reluctant to talk about behind the scenes offers.

Schools are often forced to make double tenure offers to dual career academic families or to find a job for a spouse. In 1989, the History of Science Department extended a tenure Charles E. Rosenberg. At the time, he said that his acceptance would hinge on a Harvard offer for his wife, Penn history professor Drew G. Faust. The couple eventually turned down the offer for other reasons, But a key part of the negotiation process was clearly the hiring of spouses.

Peter L. Galison '77, a historian of 20th century physics, was tenured last year by the History Department. His acceptance was contingent of Harvard's finding a job for his wife, who is a professor of fine arts. She received a post at Boston University.

More recently, incoming Graduate School of Education Dean Linda Darling Hammond took her name out of consideration for the deanship after initially being offered the post because her husband had not been given a position. she later accepted the job after he was offered a lectureship at the Kennedy School.

And still outstanding is a tenure offer to Duke professor Naomi Schor, a specialist in 19th century French literature. Schor's acceptance, say officials, may be based on Harvard's finding an endowed chair for her, but also on finding a position in the Cambridge area for her husband Paol Keineg, an adjunct associate professor of Romance studies at Duke.

The adjunct program at Duke allows the university to provide teaching positions for spouses who might not be qualified for full faculty positions. The option doesn't exit at most Ivy League institution, and that gives Duke a clear advantage in rataining faculty members like Schor.

Knowles says that this year's crop of recruitments has been fairly successful There have been 15 acceptances, with five offers still outstanding.

Stanton Professor of the First Amendment Frederick Schauer is one professor who did decide to accept a Harvard offer, and has just finished his second year at the Kennedy School But his was not an extremely quick or easy decision.

"At some point, when you're senior enough, the only respectable form of a job search is waiting for the phone to ring," says Schauer, a specialist in constitutional law with a sub specialty in free speech, the freedom of the press and the First Amendment.

Schauer received that first phone call, which he calls "ego management," The callers--usually department heads--tell the professors that there is a considerable interest in hiring someone for their departments. What the potential employer is saying, says Schauer, is "We want you to enter a competition, and youmight win."

Harvard academic departments begin searches bysending out a "blind letter" which allows facultyfrom other universities to comment on a number ofscholars in the field without knowing the specificperson under consideration.

The professor being courted is also invited toHarvard at least once before being offered aposition, either to give a lecture or to hold avisiting professorship, and also to get to knowthe Cambridge area better.

"The process is so elaborate, and the schoolhas so much information about the person at thistime, that it provides a significant amount ofinvestment in the person saying yes," saysSchauer.

But the relentless pursuit of the "best personfor the job" sometimes means that the Universitydisregards important factors such as dual careerneeds in its search, and scholars who are simplynot "movable" end up being targeted by recruiters.

Keohane admits that this strategy has itsproblems. "Given that method, there are usuallylow odds at the outset of attracting desirablefaculty members," he says.

But Knowles, who was recruited away from Oxfordby then Dean Rosovsky and the Chemistry Departmentin 1973, says search committees had concentratedtoo much on movability, they might not have a deanto oversee them toady.

"Most departments make their initial choiceswithout regard to some presumed mobility," Knowlessays. "I myself would not be here if someone hadfirst asked me if I was interested in coming. Iwas very happy at Oxford."

Nevertheless, Knowles says some departments doin fact inquire about the movability ofprofessors. "There are always people who are knownto be utterly movable," he says.

Though Harvard successfully lured Schauer, hisrecruitment highlights a number of problems thatmake the process look more like a bidding war thanlike opportunities for career advancement.

As an academic professional, Schauer's wife,Virginia J. Wise , now a lecturer on law for legalresearch at the Law School, had to figure into anymove he made. And he was unlikely to make any moveat all unless there was a job opportunity for her.

"These days, people should not and do not makedecisions by themselves," Schauer says. "It's notlike Ozzie and Harriet, where Ozzie decides tomove, and the whole family jumps into the car andgoes, My wife was just as much a part of thedecision as I was."

Knowles says the academic "richness" of theBoston area makes finding jobs for spouses easier.When he courts a professor, Knowles makes sure aspouse's curriculum vitae gets to the rightadministrator at Harvard or another university.

But Keohane says that extra attention should bepaid to this problem.

"Harvard doesn't have any explicit policies forthe double hire," he says. "This is a problemwhich the University should be thinking of."

Having to hire or find jobs for spousesis not the only hurdle for universities trying tosell themselves in this buyer's market Schoolsalso aggressively have to recruit women andminorities, who make up only a small percentage ofthe national pool of scholars.

University of Wisconsin professor Nellie Y. MCIturned down an offer to teach in Harvard' Afro-AmDepartment in 1989. The Black professoracknowledges that recruiting senior minorityfaculty can be difficult for today's universities.given a consistently small pool. But she blamesthe universities themselves for a lack offoresight in the last decade.

"It's a very hard market," she says. "There area small number of senior minority group faculty.In order to attract these kind of faculty,universities have to offer the kind of packagesthat will attract them."

Today members of this small pool of top levelminority scholars are the prizes for which thefiercest battles are fought.

When Henry Louis Gates Jr. was teaching atCornell University. he was aggressively recruitedby both Princeton and Duke. After a longcourtship, the Afro-American literature specialistmade the move to Duke.

But a year later, dissatisfied by theatmosphere in Durham, Gates made the jump again,after another lengthy recruiting effort, toHarvard.

McKay says the universities could have avoidedthe bidding wars that go on over school ars likeGates if, 10 years ago, they had used moreforesight.

"When Black studies was young, the educatorsdid not nurture or set about growing a faculty tomeet this kind of need in the 1990s," she says.

Schauer says that administrators now realizethe increased difficulties in luring professors.

"There was a lag time between Harvard alwaysgetting the person they wanted, and therealization that acceptances wouldn't come," hesays. "The realization has sunk in. Harvard is nolonger complacent about the issue.

Harvard's offer wasn't enough for McKay.Thenoted Black literary scholar says that a historyof a lack of institutional support at Harvard forBlack and other non-traditional studies compelledher to say no and stay at Wisconsin.

McKay, the author of a widely respectedanalysis of 20th century author Jean Toomer, saysthat after weighing the various issues forherself, she found that Harvard had not displayedthe same commitment to her field of interest ashad her own university.

Her case has similarities to that of history ofscience professor Allan M. Brandt. who was offereda lifetime post early in 1991 while he wasteaching at the university of North Carolina.Brandt served as an associate professor at Harvardfrom 1982 to 1990, and was refused tenure when theHistory of Science Department offered a seniorappointment to Penn's Rosenberg in 1989.

In order to lure Brandt back, Harvard agreed togive him more power to build a stronger program inthe history of medicine. He finally accepted lastfall after the University demonstrated itscommitment to the field by agreeing to fund ajunior faculty position.

But Harvard is limited in how manybonuses--like supporting junior faculty positionsor six-figure salaries--it can use in luring thehigh-profile free agents.

At Harvard other top schools, Schauersays, it's sometimes difficult to rationalizeoffering newcomers more pay than already presentprestigious faculty members receive.

"Harvard probably finds itself, because of thedistinction of its faculty, less able to offer itspeople the moon than less distinguished placesare," Schauer says.

Harvard's average salary for senior professorsis over $90,000, which is higher than that atother similar research institutions.

Knowles says that Harvard's offers don'tusually include tremendous salary increases orspecial treatment of "stars."

"Harvard doesn't really operate the starsystem in those terms," he says. "Every one of ourfaculty could go to another university as itsstar. In those terms we are vulnerable."

Indeed, well-respected senior faculty, ifconfronted with young scholars who are offeredbetter contracts, or with university-widefinancial constraints, could decide to leave forbetter offers at other institutions.

Nevertheless, even some of the world's mostprestigious universities are moving toward a starsystem.

After years of relying on its overwhelminginternational reputation, Oxford University beganjust recently to modify its salary scales forprofessors. Years ago, the scale was published inNewspapers. and professors salaries could bededuced just by knowing their ages. Today, thescales are no longer published, and administratorshave more leeway in salary offers to keep orattract stars.

In baseball, a team routinely scouts anopposing team's free agents. And in academia,elite research universities scout otherinstitutions for their next ace.

In the major leagues, it's the richest teamsthat have the ability to raid teams from smallermedia markets. And as some top universities seetheir financial woes worsen, they too may besubject to raids.

Yale, for instance, faces severe departmentalcutbacks which could threaten up to 114 facultyposition over the next 10 years, And theUniversity of California system has had a salaryincrease freeze for two years.

Knowles says. however, that bad financialconditions--and aspect of "movability"--will notaffect Harvard's attitude towards recruitment.

"We are not predatory," Knowles says. "We willsimply, as always, try to recruit the very bestfaculty, wherever they are."

But he adds; "Recruitment may be somewhateasier at some institutions."

Harvard is not immune to the predatorytendencies of other universities--each year someprofessors are lured from Cambridge to teachingopportunities elsewhere. But the loss of tenuredfaculty from Harvard is the lowest in the nation,Knowles says.

The Government Department's Keohane says thereis an alternative to engaging in high-pricedbidding wars over established senior scholars; thepromotion of junior faculty.

In the Government Department. the last threetenure appointments have been internal promotions,and seven new assistant professors will join thedepartment next fall. Keohane says that internalpromotions solve the problem of moving and make iteasier for professors to accept positions atHarvard.

"It's not that people don't want to come or tostay at Harvard, but they just can't work it out,"says Keohane. "The only people it makes sense toappoint from outside are the six-star professors."

But building a strong farm team, like thegovernment junior faculty, is long-term planning.

Just as free agents are unlikely to beeliminated from baseball. courting of starprofessors is unlikely to end anytime soon.Scholars may not be commanding multi-milliondollar salaries yet, but universities willcontinue to try to lure the home-run hitters ofthe profession to their teams