Columbia's Choice

After a year marked by turmoil and siege on campus, it is little wonder that Columbia University -- without a president for much of that time -- has been unable to find a willing candidate for the post. John Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, showed no interest when overtures were made. Martin Meyerson, president of the State University of New York at Buffalo, demurred publicly after word of negotiations was leaked. Now the Columbia trustees have turned to Alexander Heard, 52, the able chancellor of Vanderbilt University and one of the small number of their preferred choices. At week's end Columbia had reason to be encouraged. Heard had not accepted the job, but he flew to New York and was put up at the president's residence, where he held a series of meetings with Columbia trustees and faculty and student groups.

Heard, born in Savannah, received his doctorate in political science from Columbia (1951) and learned administration as dean of the graduate school at the University of North Carolina. His first move on taking over as chancellor of Vanderbilt in 1963 was to call in student leaders to discuss campus affairs, a move that got him off to a good start with the student body. He then requested a written self-appraisal from each department, getting response from 285 faculty and staff members. This netted him a 4,400-page report 16.3 inches high, all of which he read and used to good effect.

During his six years at Vanderbilt, Heard has sought greater student and faculty involvement in governing the university, and this year added recent graduates to the board of trustees. He has strengthened the teaching of sciences and created the rank of "distinguished professor," a device that allows the university to exceed authorized salaries to attract better teachers. Taking a strong stand against segregation, he has worked to increase black enrollment (103 out of 6,000). He shows a thoughtful understanding of student dissent and told a group of Memphis businessmen this year that sending in police is bad because it drives uncommitted students to support radicals. Heard urges instead that college administration mistakes be rectified and that the nation "get on with solving the problems our children are so sensitive to."

At Columbia (enrollment: 18,000), Heard would find troubles that dwarf any he encountered in Nashville. The university faces the possibility of more disruptions by radical students this fall. Its newly established student-faculty governing committee, set up to make the university administration more democratic, is still untested. Several of the professional schools have encroached upon the power of the presidency, and the university expects a crushing $11 million budget deficit next year.

Thus many of the tactics Heard has used at Vanderbilt could be applied to Columbia with good effect. There is one exception: if the 7,062-man Columbia faculty and staff were to produce written job appraisals as detailed as those submitted to him at Vanderbilt, the assembled report might well be 109,027 pages long and 33 feet high.

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