Meanwhile...

Finally, More than three years after he had accepted a teaching position at Harvard. Polish dissident scholar Stanislaw Baranczak arrived in Cambridge this week. Polish authorities last month granted him a passport after having rejected seven previous applications. "There was a rumor they would cancel all the flights," the 34-year-old poet said after arriving here. "Almost to the last minute we weren't sure if everything would go all right," he added. But they did, and Baranczak will likely begin teaching next fall as part of his three-year associate professorship.

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Harvard's Economics Department may soon have to contend with some economic problems of its own. If Congress approves the Reagan administration's proposed budget cuts for next year, the department could lose nearly half a million dollars in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants. NSF officials said this week Nearly half the department's faculty members receive NSF grants annually ranging from $40,000 to $80,000, Zvi Griliches, chairman of the department, said this week. He added that "40 per cent of our budget may simply disappear" if the cuts are approved.

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Members of Local 26, the union that represents Harvard's dining hall workers, decided last week to oust their leadership. By more than a two-to-one margin, union members voted to replace their present officers with an opposition slate committed to rejuvenating the union. "The old officers did nothing. They were a no-show union." Domenic Bozzotto, who will take over as president of the 5000-member union, said this week.