Administrators have said it is too early tojudge the plan that aims to reduce theUniversity's reliance on established scholarslured from other schools. Bok and Spence haverefused to discuss either tenure bid.
Between 10 and 12 professors were present forthe second vote on Watson, which took place at ameeting last Thursday, Buckley said. Alfred saidother senior members of the department cast votesbefore the meeting.
Garber, who like Watson is a Shakespeareanscholar, declined to discuss the department'saction. "This is confidential information and I'mdisturbed that it has been passed on in whateverform," she said.
Department members said that they discussedwhat they believed to be the ad hoc committee'sobjections, summaries of letters from scholarsthat Spence solicited after their first vote, andrecent reviews of Watson's first book,"Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition."
Three of the letters were favorable to Watsonand one was not, department members said. Inaddition two "mostly negative letters" that thedepartment had requested before its first votewere considered, Kaiser said.
One of the reviews of Watson's book, whichappeared in a recent issue of the journalBibliotheque de Humanisme et Renaissance stated inpart: "If this book doesn't get [Watson] promotionto full professor at Harvard then the Big Booktheory of academic promotion is less reliable thanany of us--even those of us who reached the summitby piling little books one on top of another--haveever believed."
English Department Chairman and BernbaumProfessor of Literature Joel Porte declined toelaborate on the department vote.
Porte said he would "chastize" departmentmembers who spoke to The Crimson.
"This type of rumor-mongering by members of thedepartment, this kind of an attempt to manipulatepublic opinion constitutes a most serious breachof trust," Porte said.