"Of course, sometimes it's hard not to feel terribly resentful about the whole thing, but there was no deception; the rules for promotion were essentially clear," Brecht says, adding, "Ultimately I think what I got out of Harvard was much more than they ever got out of me."   --Sarah Paul

Peter Dale

Peter Dale captures his new life in a line: "There's a lot less stress here: a lot less worrying about problems--You don't have to stay awake at night listening for every siren that goes off."

When Dale, former assistant professor of English and senior tutor at Adams House, was denied an associate professorship last spring, he turned down the offers of several other universities and left Cambridge for the pastoral setting of Davis, California.

Now an assistant professor of English at the University of California, Dale--a native Californian--is confident he made the right choice.

"I love it here. The students are very good, and I probably have as wide a range of teaching opportunities here as I did at Harvard," Dale says. He adds that the town of Davis is a big plus.

"Cambridge, particularly in the Harvard Square area, is very crowded, very busy and very dangerous. Davis has at most 30,000, 35,000 people, and students are very much a part of the community," he explains.

Dale is currently finishing his second book--a study of science and imagination in the 19th century--and working on a collection of essays. In addition, he is teaching a class on 19th century fiction and an introductory poetry course, and he plans to conduct a seminar on Dickens next trimester.

But while Dale is generally happy in his new position, there have been a few disappointments. For one, he misses Harvard's program of tutorials and independent study--an option which is missing at Davis.

Perhaps more important, Davis specializes in science and agriculture. "At Harvard I could pretty much assume that there would be a lot of interest in English literature, but here the humanities are on the defensive," he says.

All in all, Dale concludes, the benefits of year-rounds sunshine and a quiet community in which to raise his family outweigh Davis' disadvantages, and he expects to stay there indefinitely.

"Despite what some Harvard professors and students insist on believing," he says, "intellectual life is alive and well in the provinces."   --Wendy L. Wall

Mary Nolan

Mary F. Nolan has no regrets about leaving Harvard--"I've found a much nicer place to work," she says.

The former assistant professor of History--who left the University last year after she was denied promotion to associate professor--now teaches Modern European and Women's Social History at New York University (NYU), where she says she has found a feeling of intellectual community that did not exist at Harvard.