Last week's denial came despite what onefaculty member called a History Departmentrecommendation that was "minorly in [Brinkley's]favor."

History Department Chairman and Dumbarton OaksProfessor of Byzantine History Angeliki E. Laioudeclined to comment on Brinkley's case.

More Problems

The decision on Brinkley comes in the wake offaculty criticism of President Derek C. Bok'srecent failure to act on the tenure nomination ofAssociate Professor of English Robert N. Waston.Professors in the English Department gave Watson'stenure bid their unanimous support.

Professor of English and comparative LiteratureWalter Kaiser '54 condemned the president'sfailure to act before 500 students attending alecture in Literature and Arts A-40a,"Shakespeare." Bok's failure to endorse Watson had"effectively repudiated" the new tenureinitiative, Kaiser later said.

In addition to departmental endorsements,junior faculty members must gain the approval ofan ad hoc committee of scholars in their field andultimately Bok in order to win lifetime posts.

But Brinkley's review never made it to thelater stages, the faculty member said. He saidthat Spence decided not to convene an ad hoccommittee after Brinkley's detractors sent thedean letters outlining their objections totenuring the associate professor.

At the crux of their criticism was the volumeof Brinkley's scholarly work, which--whileimpressive for an historian his age--is less thanthat generally expected of successful candidatesfor tenure in the History Department, the facultymember said.

The faculty member said that Spence's decisionto halt Brinkley's review after the luke-warmdepartment approval was due to the dean's concernthat with such a weak recommendation a youngscholar would not successfully complete the tenureprocess.

"He was making a political judgement about whatwould happen in the future," the faculty membersaid.

Spence was unavailable for comment yesterday,but has said in the past that it is too early forhis plan to have any concrete effect on the tenureprocess