OCR Text |
Show Academic Freedom Publish or Peris By JACK AUSPITZ and ROBERT HOROWITZ The Harvard Crimson Collegiate Press Service Two hundred Harvard students staged an angry rally recently to protest the dismissal dis-missal of several popular young instructors. instruc-tors. The instructors were asked to leave the university for failing to meet departmental requirements of scholarly publication. The university refused all comment, claiming that Pusey was tied up in negotiations nego-tiations for purchase of the Boston Red Sox and could not be disturbed. The controversy swirls around four teachers in the History of Religions Department De-partment who have published little. ONE, AN assistant professor, taught a popular course in early Christianity, but wrote nothing. On mild days, he habitually habitu-ally shepherded his class to a small mountain moun-tain for his lecture. Departmental officials charged that the lectures were given in an unscholarly manner and amounted to little more than sermonizing. The faculty was also con- cerned about the professor's dubious par- "Then questioned, the PMid onlv "They know not what they do. AnotheJ instructor, a bearded expert ;n Jewish theology has composed only ton sentences while at the university enSS,Ctne department charges ; wer written by someone else. The nstru"r has been passed over for promot.on sev- cral times. , The faculty also dismissed one of the more prolific members, whose work m eludes 95 theses. The department had com plained that nailing the theses tc the instructor's in-structor's office door did not constitute an acceptable mode of scholarly publication. The final case in the Religions Department Depart-ment involves an instructor in oriental Sudies who spent much of his time sitting under a tree with his feet crossed, contemplating con-templating Holyoke Center. "I have no desire for promotion. In fact, I have no desire," students quoted him as saying. His department charged ' lack of initiative." The controversy threatens to widen when the faculty takes up other cases next week. In some m- stances, failure to publish U with other criticisms. co: An instructor in the Classics n raent, for example, well known f course in the history of the T has been charged with "lack of J'"' 'sion The most scandalous case h involves an instructor in Greek k phy. He is accused of copyini,P, published works, word for Wo H casual comments made by a se fessor at cocktail parties. nit"- This instructor is also suspec being a monarchist. He allegedly , an abortive coup in which member Philosophy Department sought to ni university. Some students also hk he invited the very youngest bovs ." section to "wild parties." One instructor of medieval tlw however, has been jumped to fuiu; sor. He completed a treatise of sorl' volumes on matters of the highest th ical value. No senior faculty member yet read the work, but all are greati ' pressed by its table of contents and-cute and-cute review it received in the "Crimso- |