But Ford does concede that some special committees he has created through the Faculty do serve to make the "community aware of things that stay cooped up in the Dean's office." Special committees and their reports legitimize, publicize, and hopefully popularize proposals that the dean might have been able to propose without them.

Aware of Cynicism

Ford has been aware of prevalent cynicism toward committees in general, and says it has often proven a problem for him to convince persons that he was not setting up a committee so as not to do something. He says he heard this when he decided upon the committee on the uses of computers in instruction. That committee's report this year will have an initial pay-off next Fall when four computer consoles are installed in the Houses and Harvard Yard for undergraduate use.

* * * *

Once a special committee is decided upon, the problem becomes staffing it. For Ford, the first question is a chairman. He says John T. Dunlop, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy, was an "ideal choice" to chair this year's Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Faculty. Dunlop had just finished a term as chairman of the Economics Department, his field--economics--was a large, central one in the University, and his specialty within the field--manpower and labor relations--was relevant to the committee's topic.

Dunlop's initial reaction when asked why he agreed to chair the committee was, "I was out of my mind." But he quickly added that it was just a case of, "Franklin asked me to do it and I agreed to do it." Dunlop was on sabbatical this year, and his work as chairman cut into his own leave time.

In most cases, Ford draws up his own list of possible members for the special committee, shows them to the selected chairman for concurrence, and then asks them to join. This is what happened with Dunlop's committee, for example.

There are those members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who will serve on committees and those who won't. One very well-known professor here is reported to have intentionally acted as stupid as possible on committees he has been on just to keep from being asked to join others.

"One tends to suspect that," Ford says of such reported behavior, although he adds he himself knows of no professor who is guilty of it.

More typical perhaps is a senior professor who says he has avoided serving on committees as much as possible during his career here, but every now and then agrees to be on one, considering it a sort of dues for being on the Harvard Faculty.

Naturally Good

"Some men are just naturally good committee members--I mean that in a serious sense," Ford says. These men tend to be on many committees, more than they themselves may prefer.

"Occasionally, someone will point out the number of committees he's been on and say, 'for God's sake, do give him a chance to do something else."

The composition of the Dunlop committee was extraordinary. Besides Dunlop, its members are Herchel C. Baker, professor of English, Merle Fainsod, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the University Library, Oscar Handlin, Charles Warren Professor of American History, George B. Kistiakowsky, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, Edward S. Mason, University Professor, and J. C. Street, professor of Physics. It is a high-powered collection indeed.

Dunlop agrees that the attempt here was for a "blue-ribbon" panel, whose recommendations--which obviously would lead to major changes if accepted--would carry strong weight with the Faculty.