Protestors Meet With Rudenstine

Organizers of the recent Junior Parent's Weekend protests left yesterday's meeting with President Neil L. Rudenstine empty-handed, without official commitment to their campaign for more minority faculty members and ethnic studies classes at Harvard.

During yesterday's meeting, one of the protests' organizers, Hyewon T. Chong '95, asked Rudenstine to write a memo to administrators asking them to target ethnic studies instructors in their faculty searches.

Chong said Rudenstine "seems to agree with us." But he added that she wants to see the president's support in writing.

Asian American Association Co-President Jennifer Ching '96 said that while she appreciated Rudenstine's openness, she left his office frustrated.

Ching said her group's objectives are "so difficult to implement in today's bureaucracy."

In an interview shortly before the meeting, Rudenstine called the protestors' concerns "real". But he also said geographical considerations, the small number of tenured faculty opening at Harvard and the small pool of minorities earning doctorate degrees make fulfilling the protestors' goals difficult.

"It's a slow process, and from the point of view of students... very hard for them, quite understandably, to feel dramatic progress," Rudenstine said.

Yesterday's meeting was held during the president's office hours. During the conference, Rudenstine and four students--Ching, Chong, Raza President Xavier A. Gutierrez '95 and minority Students Alliance Co-Chair Jean Tom '96--discussed the role students can play in helping the administration with its faculty searches, according to Ching. She said Rudenstine advised the students tocontinue keeping close contact with theadministration about their concerns.

In the meeting, Rudenstine also identified whathe said were two more realistic methods of briningminority faculty to campus: junior professorships,which offer more frequent opening than tenuredpositions, and the Diversity Fund Initiative,which funds tenure-level jobs for women andminorities.

But Rudenstine also told the students thattheir request for an endowed chair in Asian-American studies in not economically feasible,according to Ching.

Chong said she would be grateful for anyincrease in diversity. But she added that becausejunior professors at Harvard rarely get tenure,increasing the number of minority junior facultymembers will not have a long-term impact.

In a Crimson interview, Rudenstine emphasizedthat hiring minority faculty can be complicated bygeography. Many minority professors and theirfamilies are settled in jobs and schools in othercities, the luring them to Harvard's difficult.

"When the poll is small...and when there areonly a tiny number of people who fit your tinynumber of openings and if those people happen tobe very happy where they are... it just might notto be so easy to move that person," Rudenstinesaid.

The relatively small number of Hispanics in NewEngland complicates the recruiting and hiringprocess of Hispanic faculty, hesaid.

The president who also said that only about 20tenure-level positions in the Faculty of Arts andSciences are open each year, making it difficultto force dramatic changes in the proportion oftenure minority faculty.

"We're willing to fight the battle," he said."But there's a certain number of realities outthere that we have to work with.

In the meeting, Rudenstine also identified whathe said were two more realistic methods of briningminority faculty to campus: junior professorships,which offer more frequent opening than tenuredpositions, and the Diversity Fund Initiative,which funds tenure-level jobs for women andminorities.

But Rudenstine also told the students thattheir request for an endowed chair in Asian-American studies in not economically feasible,according to Ching.

Chong said she would be grateful for anyincrease in diversity. But she added that becausejunior professors at Harvard rarely get tenure,increasing the number of minority junior facultymembers will not have a long-term impact.

In a Crimson interview, Rudenstine emphasizedthat hiring minority faculty can be complicated bygeography. Many minority professors and theirfamilies are settled in jobs and schools in othercities, the luring them to Harvard's difficult.

"When the poll is small...and when there areonly a tiny number of people who fit your tinynumber of openings and if those people happen tobe very happy where they are... it just might notto be so easy to move that person," Rudenstinesaid.

The relatively small number of Hispanics in NewEngland complicates the recruiting and hiringprocess of Hispanic faculty, hesaid.

The president who also said that only about 20tenure-level positions in the Faculty of Arts andSciences are open each year, making it difficultto force dramatic changes in the proportion oftenure minority faculty.

"We're willing to fight the battle," he said."But there's a certain number of realities outthere that we have to work with.