Harvard Status May Delay OK Of Hiring Plan

Harvard's prominent status in the academic world may be a stumbling block to federal acceptance of the University's non-discriminatory hiring plan, Walter J. Leonard, the University's affirmative action coordinator, said yesterday.

The government may be evaluating Harvard's plan very cautiously, Leonard said, and that may have caused the delay in a federal review of the proposal submitted by the University three months ago.

Ordinarily, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) responds to an institution's affirmative action plan within 45 days.

"Because of Harvard's relative position in the community of academic institutions, many may consider the Harvard plan a kind of model," Leonard said yesterday.

He said that he suspects that HEW reviewers are being particularly careful that the hiring plan "follows the spirit and the letter of the law."

Leonard said that he was "not terribly disturbed" by HEW's delay in responding to Harvard's five-volume affirmative action proposal.

About a month after Harvard submitted its most recent proposal to HEW, a regional office official said that the government was close to accepting the plan for non-discriminatory hiring.

Modifications Requested

At that time, Robert Randolph, an HEW reviewer, said that HEW would probably accept the University's plan "after a few more negotiations," but that the department would request "some modifications."

The plan under consideration is a revised version of a proposal rejected by the government in June.

Randolph said in September that the new program was "certainly more comprehensive" than the earlier plan, and that it corrected most of the deficiencies.