March 26, 1999

Northeastern U. Tries to Woo Berkeley Professor to Head History Department; Yale Intent on Filling Slots at New International Center for Finance

By SCOTT HELLER, ROBIN WILSON, and KARLA HAWORTH

After two years without a chairman and one failed hurry-up search, Northeastern University's history department has decided on Thomas R.H. Havens, of the University of California at Berkeley, for the job.

Now it's up to the administration to work out an offer that will lure Mr. Havens, who is both a professor of history and East Asian languages and director of the East Asian Library at Berkeley. He met with