Word: keenan
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...self-effacing in discussing his assumption of the new post, constantly describing himself as "the new boy" who "hardly knows his way in the door," and whose first priority is still "just trying to learn the job." Yet it is obvious that Edward L. Keenan '57, new dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, has been doing his homework this summer. He sits in his office in University Hall 24 in complete command of the array of charts, graphs and reports that fill the files in his desk. He cites statistics from some of the books he included...
...specialist in medieval Russian history who, at age 42, has already spent 22 years at Harvard, Keenan says the country and its graduate schools are entering a period of considerable "aggregate statistical turbulence. The question is, where will Harvard fit in to these statistics? We can't expect to live always in the style to which we've become accustomed." The new dean cites the studies with just a trace of resignation: Between now and 1990, as many academic appointments will open up as during the two-year period of 1965-66. That translates into about 4800 college jobs openings...
...Keenan predicts a possible crisis of low morale among both graduate students and faculty, a crisis against which he intends to do battle. "The existential situation of the graduate student is pretty trying. He can read The New York Times just as well as anybody else. He knows that zero or minus on the chart is him. Most of our students probably think, 'Well, I'm going to be all right. It's not going to be me.' In most cases that's probably a sensible and statistically plausible way of looking at it. But in some fields...
...faculty, Keenan says he increasingly expects to see "the professor who only has one student every other year in a seminar on a very complex subject, to which he's devoted a whole lifetime, that he's eager to convey to others. That professor, after a while, no matter how enthusiastic he is, begins to wonder, should he be doing something else...
...Keenan sees his role as helping to formulate policies to bring the graduate school through this period of radical demographic change, taking steps to "maximize the employability of our grad students," adding, "there are skills and kinds of experiences and attitudes that we can give to graduate students so that they can get a serious professional Ph.D. and then have a plausible option outside the academic world...