Faculty Council Adds New Rung to Research Hierarchy

The Faculty Council received a proposal for the creation of a new research position yesterday, responding to changes in the way research is undertaken in certain sciences such as biochemistry.

The proposed post of research fellow would add a rung to the ladder between post-doctorates and the existing senior research fellow. Senior research fellows are non-teaching appointments, of roughly equivalent status to faculty.

Paul C. Martin '52, chair of the committee on research policy that submitted the proposal, said that the proposed post is designed to enable to the university to employ top researchers in selected fields of science.

"We want to be able to attract the most able young researchers," Martin said. "We're most concerned with areas in the life sciences where the time between receiving a doctorate and being appointed to junior faculty has grown to many years."

The new post is significant in that it carries the right to be a principal investigator, a designation that permits the holder to apply for, receive, and administer research grants. The proposal responds to changes in science research methods that currently involve more researchers working simultaneously--the same issue that has led to the creation of a number of scientific research institutes at Harvard.

"We are confident that the fellows will be a very positive force in new areas of research, in particular those areas represented by new science initiatives such as the Center for Genomics Research," Martin said.

The Council approved the proposal for submission to the full Faculty at its December 1 meeting. It will be packaged with three other proposed changes to research policy that the council dealt with earlier in the term.

Martin said he hopes that appointments will begin in the near future.

"In the coming year, we hope to make the first few appointments," Martin said. "It's difficult to say what the final number will be, but my guess now is that it will be in the order of a dozen or two."

The Council also spent time discussing issues surrounding the sale of lecture notes to online "knowledge center" companies, a practice explicitly banned in university policies that has become increasingly common and gained significant media attention this year.

The Council voted unanimously to strongly endorse the existing prohibition on the practice.

"There should be no doubt in the minds of students or the members of the administrative board that selling notes is absolutely unacceptable to this Faculty," said Secretary of the Faculty John B. Fox, Jr. '59

The Council also discussed a second concern. Members noted that professors' copyrights were being violated by the sale and posting of the notes. According to a legal opinion submitted to the Council by the University General Counsel's office, the faculty-member owns the content of their lectures, so long as they have recorded it in some form.

The issue is not over the rights of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, but rather one affecting the rights of individual faculty-members. Still, Council members said the issue affects the interests of the university community and they hope to further address it at a later date.

In other business, the Council also devoted discussion time to ongoing issues with Project Adapt, Harvard's recently installed financial management system.

Problems with implementation, user training and other computer glitches continue to plague everyone involved in the project, and, as frustration grows, the Faculty Council is increasingly concerned with arriving at a satisfactory resolution for system-wide issues.

Turning to administrative items, the Council voted to accept the course list for the coming session of Harvard Summer School.

The Standing Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid in Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges submitted a request to the Council for a name change to the Standing Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid in Harvard College. The Council will handle that request by e-mail later this week.