HELP WANTED: Three hours of teaching a week. Unlimited access to one of the most extensive library systems. Prime lab space for scientific research. Large studies available in the second largest library in the country. Mortgage subsidies for Cambridge houses.

Send resumes to: Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Many learned scholars have answered similar calls to service, leaving academic institutions around the country and the world to accept tenured posts at the nation's oldest university.

Harvard traditionally fills the vast majority of its senior faculty positions by luring professors from other universities to Cambridge. Harvard's ability to draw new senior professors has been based on the strength of its reputation and its facilities. But as other universities have employed new techniques to pull in the big fish, Harvard has had to create new programs to remain competitive in the academic market.

"Harvard has always received a much higher proportion of senior professors from other faculties. We have been able to do that because of our pulling power, and this ability has greatly contributed to the reputation of our faculty today," says President Bok. "It has been a deliberate and very successful strategy that has produced some of our most eminent senior faculty."

To strengthen the lure of coming to Cambridge, over the years, Harvard has baited its hook with a series of benefits designed to ensure that professors maximize their opportunities to use the extensive facilities the University has to offer.

While Harvard's junior faculty members struggle with heavy teaching loads and meager salaries, the senior faculty enjoy the good life. Some of the perks that make the Yard an attractive place for tenured professors to go every morning include Widener Library studies that allow academics to work close to reference materials, subsidies that help professors moving to Cambridge from other universities find comfortable housing near campus, and access to laboratory facilities that meet the often demanding needs of specific research projects.

Lifetime of Study

In an historic move this fall, Higginson Professor of History Emeritus John K. Fairbank gave up his Widener study when he retired. Never before has a professor relinquished a coveted library office for reasons other than death or resignation from the faculty.

The 120 Widener and Pusey Library studies, which vary in size and location, carry with them prestige and convenience. Professors consider them the most desirable on campus because they are close to most of the University's library stacks.

"The studies are desirable to people involved in stack-centered research, because they can keep their books and materials in the library," says Margaret A. Bailey, administrative assistant for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences office of physical planning.

Bailey calls herself "the keeper of The List" for the studies, now 20 names long. The turnover on the studies is extremely slow because once a professor moves from The List to a study, it's his for life. The next step is a shorter, separate list, one with the names of 10 professors waiting for the chance to move into a larger, more lavish study.

The studies in Pusey are often not as desirable, Bailey says, though they include such amenities as air conditioning. Pusey studies are uniform in size, while the Widener offices vary. Occasionally the professor at the top of the waiting list will pass up the first available study if it is in Pusey, Bailey says.

On the top floor of Widener, surrounding the domed center of the hallowed library, are the most expansive and elite studies, marked by letters A-Z rather than by the numbers of the more common studies. Only professors who have achieved the first plateau--those who have made it off The List--can earn a spot on the special waiting list. These faculty members have the first option on any study--the ultimate lettered ones or just more desirable normal ones--that is vacated.

Hollis Professor of Divinity Emeritus George H. Williams, who holds the oldest endowed chair in the U.S., has occupied Widener Library K for 14 years. Williams says he shared a carrel in 1947 when he came to Harvard, was moved to a single carrel in 1948, and landed Widener Library 47 in 1949.