Hiring Performance 'Not Great'

President Neil L. Rudenstine yesterday criticized his own performance when it comes to hiring minority and women for top-level administrative posts.

In an interview, Rudenstine said his record in that regard had been "not great. Not as good as I would have liked, though not for want of trying."

The president also stressed yesterday that several new initiatives to diversify the University faculty are underway.

Rudenstine has appointed deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School of Government, the Graduate School of Design and the Graduate School of Education since he was named more than a year ago as Harvard's 26th president. He also named a University-wide provost. All five of these major posts have gone to white males.

The Education School was the lone deanship that Rudenstine had named a Black woman to fill. But Columbia Teachers College Professor Linda Darling-Hammond backed out of that position for personal reasons earlier this summer, and Rudenstine named a white male, Professor of Education Jerome T. Murphy, to replace her.

Rudenstine attributed the dearth of minority and women Harvard deans to the rarefied nature of the jobs and the small pools of qualified candidates.

"One real consideration in every case was the level of preparation the person had for the job that was to be done," Rudenstine said. "Our Deanships are...very much like presidencies of colleges."

"When you look at the pool of women and minorities who are at that level...it's a very small pool," Rudenstine said.

"I give myself good marks for trying and for some near successes, but nothing like the marks I would like to have in terms of results," he said.

The president said efforts are underway to increase the diversity of the faculty. He said key ways to accomplish that include improving Harvard's affirmative action data analysis, making money available to ease spe- Scific appointments and honing recruitingskills.

Rudenstine said the ideas were generated inresponse to a memo he sent last spring to deansand vice presidents soliciting proposals toincrease faculty diversity.

More Money

Rudenstine said he hopes the upcoming capitalcampaign will yield some funds that can bedirected toward recruiting minority and womenfaculty. He also said some of last year's results,particularly "the unusually large number of women"offered tenured posts in the Faculty of Arts andSciences, were "quite encouraging."

Rudenstine said he hopes to increase the supplyof women and minorities in academia by supportingprograms targeting undergraduates and"all-but-dissertation" doctoral candidates

Rudenstine said the ideas were generated inresponse to a memo he sent last spring to deansand vice presidents soliciting proposals toincrease faculty diversity.

More Money

Rudenstine said he hopes the upcoming capitalcampaign will yield some funds that can bedirected toward recruiting minority and womenfaculty. He also said some of last year's results,particularly "the unusually large number of women"offered tenured posts in the Faculty of Arts andSciences, were "quite encouraging."

Rudenstine said he hopes to increase the supplyof women and minorities in academia by supportingprograms targeting undergraduates and"all-but-dissertation" doctoral candidates