Academic Marriages

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I read with interest Jennifer Mnookin's article on academic couples (April 9) and took particular pleasure in the happy ending of the Herlihys' academic and marital story. My husband and I have been commuting in one form or another since we began our careers some six years ago. We are both untenured, and my husband teaches history at Princeton. It was, therefore, with some irritation that I read Professor Zeckhauser's flippant and misleading comments both about the relative ease with which beginning assistant professors could find jobs in the same city and about the likelihood that a "commuter marriage" (between Princeton and Harvard yet!) would end within two years in divorce. He is wrong--unfortunately in the first case and fortunately in the second--about both of these things, and I suspect he has no experience and little knowledge of either of them. It might have been interesting to consult those who can speak to the subject of commuting with real authority because it is, as you say, a common element in many academic marriages.

I want to add that in virtually every case of which I am aware (and this includes the cases mentioned in your article) spouses who end up at the same university have not done so by accident, but rather with the conscious planning and/or efforts of the university involved. Deborah E. Nord   Assistant Professor of English