Catbird Shift

Harvard picks a new dean

The post of dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University is the academic equivalent of James Thurber's catbird seat. Besides overseeing the undergraduate colleges, the dean is in charge of some of the nation's most distinguished graduate programs. In addition, he can capitalize on Harvard's enormous influence over other American colleges and universities. After Dean Henry Rosovsky introduced a "core curriculum" in 1979 for Harvard undergraduates, many other liberal arts colleges rushed to alter their programs. Thus it was of far more than parochial interest when Harvard last week announced a successor to Rosovsky, 56, who will return next fall to the economics department. His replacement: another economist, A. Michael Spence, 40, an expert in industrial organization.

A Rhodes scholar, Spence joined the university's faculty in 1973 and became chairman of the economics department last June. Faculty sources say he demonstrated adroitness in the late '70s as chairman of a committee studying the touchy question of Harvard's investments in companies that do business in South Africa. Among Spence's top priorities are reducing sexual harassment on campus (the extent of which was revealed in a university survey last November) and improving affirmative action in faculty hiring. Furthermore, the university will have to decide one of the definitive issues of the times: how best to utilize the computer in its curriculum.