10/10/75

Dean Rich
—_—

Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics

Dear Clay,

I have a copy of your letter of October 6th to Bob Butler about
accounting procedures; and this was also quite pertinent to your applauding
remarks about the quality of administrative support that we have in the
Medical School and which was exemplified by the outcome of the recent
negotiations on cost reimbrusement!

I know that you do not perceive me to be in the camp of administrator-
baiters and I certainly share your approval and appreciation for the quality
of the recent effort!

If the purpose of your letter was to get some quotable remarks that
could correctly and appropriately help to reward our colleagues in this area,
I hope my letter has already served that purpose,

We are aware of the tensions that arise between the different lines of
authority and responsibility in an academic institution,and have discussed
them in the past in more abstaact terms, Certainly we need the highest quality
of administrative talent and insight that we can recruit and it is no help to
be panning the people who work so hard to suppart the fundamental academic
effort to which we are all dedicated.

The only further comment that I can think to make in response to your
letter is to note that it is hardly surprising that the mailman is sometimes
pummelled for bringing bad news; and the administrative afficer is often in
that position. I think my academic colleagues are not always as mature as one
would hope in recognizing those distinctions.

On the other hand, I think that under the pressures that arise from various
sources, I have to remark that our administration is not always as sensitive
as it might be to the impact on our day-to-day work of the passive transmission
of the rules and regulations and other irks that come in from Washington and
other sources. As indicated in my note about accounting procedures, I would
hope to elicit a bit more attention to looking for ways in which these
externals pressures might be ameliorated bw more creative responses on the part
of our internal operating management; this is not always the same as the tidleat
managerial package or the easiest and automatic response to external pressures.
Dean Rich -2- 10/10/75

Personnel is almost inevitably one of the obvious scapegoats in the current
climate and I know that you have taken steps to try to improve the material
content of concerns in that direction. Other problems arise more from university
sources than from within the Medical School in matters like tracking the current
stages of available funds and things of that sort. I do not think any of these
are new issues for you but this seemed like a reasonable point at which to re-
capitulate then.

Sincerely yours,