I recall with some clarity when
it was announced that Robert J.
Harris had accepted an appointment
to the University. Conversation
among the faculty and the
students invariably concluded that
the University had succeeded in
pulling off a major coup in enticing
him to come to Charlottesville.
As the years since he has
been here have passed, Dean Harris's
contributions to the University
have only been subject to
praise. Now with the heated debate
over the promotions of professors
in the economics department,
past accomplishments have
been forgotten and his personal
integrity has been called into
question. This simply can not go
unchallenged.
The Department of Government
and Foreign Affairs has a tradition
of obtaining men who are
not only scholars in their field,
but who are students' professors.
Men like Robert K. Gooch and
George W. Spicer set a tone in
that department of never being too
busy for their students, of never
responding in but a helpful and
instructional manner, and of never
reacting except in an objective and
scholarly way. Dean Harris
exemplifies this tradition.
It is difficult to believe that
a man, to use the words of a reviewer
of one of his books, who
has a "powerful perspective on
political theory and on American
constitutional and judicial history,"
would be, to use Mr. Buchanan's
words, "susceptible to professional
jealousy over the
successes of Mr. Tullock and myself
in the political economics
field." Such an accusation is
not only petty and unfounded, but
not worthy of such a respected
"scholar" as Mr. Buchanan. Dean
Harris is no upstart trying to
make his mark on the political
science profession. He is recognized
to be a man possessed
with a brilliant mind and is a
leader in his field. His reputation
is such that on a recent Graduate
Record Examination the student
was asked to identify him. Surely
such a man is above "professional
jealousy."
Furthermore, as Dean of the
Faculty, he has been instrumental
in bringing to the University many
first-rate men. It becomes absurd
to accuse a man who is charged
with improving and who has improved
the quality of the faculty
at the University with a design
to destroy that which he is obligated
to protect and to promote.
A man's personal integrity
should never be attacked, especially
by a "scholar," without the
most clear and convincing documentation.
Innuendos have no
place in an academic community.
Many people owe Dean Harris an
apology.
