was in a classroom learning something important about history or
about music or whatever it might be.” Of course, being accessible to
nonexperts is a more valued asset for those serving on multi-
disciplinary, as opposed to unidisciplinary, panels.
Respect other people’s expertise and sentiments. An appreciation of
others’ views translates into a willingness to listen and to be con-
vinced by another person’s assessment. A historian’s explanation for
why he felt closest to two women co-panelists sums up the impor-
tance of respect among panel members:
I liked the way they interacted with other people on the panel, al-
ways respectful. Their interpersonal skills, I felt comfortable with
them...Ifeltthat I could say what I wanted to say and it would
be heard respectfully. I thought that they had read the proposals
very carefully. I guess I felt sometimes that the other guy’s read-
ings did not seem to be as detailed, although that may have not
been the case. But in addition to that, the women I thought also
commanded a kind of intellectual respect.Conversely, the most negative comments made about other panel-
ists often concern how they interact with others, handle differences
of opinion, and contribute to shared goals. Although expressing dif-
ferences of opinion is deemed acceptable, avoiding open confronta-
tion is viewed as essential. Indeed, a humanist describes a co-panelist
as follows: “[He] could be a little...bitcontentious and confron-
tational in ways that seemed to be a little unnecessary. [He] made
pronouncements, expressing his contempt for this or that.” Another
panelist, this same humanist recalls, “had a kind of flaky irreverence
that I think grated on us a bit...Hemadeanynumberofodd
jokes of borderline sensitivity and appropriateness.” Undoubtedly,
the value assigned to interpersonal sensitivity is to some extent his-
Pragmatic Fairness / 115