"He has a nice logician's view of how to present a case," says Montgomery of the Government Department. "He knows what kind of evidence should be marshalled, and he has an instinct for a nicely paced argument."

"He has a wry way of cutting through academic obfuscation," adds James S. Ackerman, chairman of the Fine Arts Department.

Dreben does not seem to have any compunctions about applying his logical insightfulness to tenure cases. In addition to reviewing the dossiers and choosing ad hoc committee members. Dreben says he participates actively in the ad hoc meetings themselves.

"I might make a comparison between this case and another case, or ask questions," Dreben says. "I feel obliged to bring out the [historical perspective], but the dean also does that. We work in tandem."

Rosovsky and others who know him say that Dreben is aided in his tenure responsibilities by his capacity to keep abreast of a wide range of fields.

From his days in the Society of Fellows, Dreben has contacts in every field whom he says he calls on for advice on particular tenure cases.

"He knows the University and the departments in a way one couldn't learn by any other method," says Roderick Firth, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity.

Dreben complains jovially about the burdens of all his administrative responsibilities--which he calculates take more than 58 percent of his time.

But he says he feels the self-administration of the Faculty requires that he and others sacrifice other pursuits. He explains: "I think it is essential that major faculties be self-governed. That means that a number of professors have to spend a certain amount of their careers helping to administer their own faculties."

"There is always some slight--and sometimes, not so slight--suspicion about a professor who spends time in administration," Dreben adds, but he says that situation is better than the alternative--unsympathetic professional administrators.

Dreben "is not a person who seeks the limelight. If he had a choice, he would rather be, as the Japanese say, behind the screen."

-Henry Rosovsky