"I objected to that [change] completely, and so did the other members of the senior faculty who have been associated with Harvard for a very long time," Fillingham says. "You have to be experienced with a tutorial situation and how it can operate to really want to do it."

Many students said they enjoyed the freedom of a do-it-yourself tutorial.

"I thought that the year-long experience was really fun," says graduate student Lisa Clayton '92, an English concentrator as an undergraduate. "It's a really individual experience."

Seminar material is based on professor's interests, so students have less freedom to study exactly what they want.

"If you are in a specific field and want someone in that field, there may not be something in the junior seminars, and that has upset people." Fillingham says.

English honors concentrators who hope to write theses have also met with more resistance lately.

Some English professors believe students shouldn't write these for the wrong reasons. The department sent seniors writing theses a letter this fall listing a number of reasons to abandon their research plans.

"It was pretty discouraging," says Anne R. Clark '93, who still intends to write a thesis.

ITHERS APPROVE OF THE adjustments encouraged by the new professors. The department has 'only changed for the better," says Scott Gordon '83, a sixth-year graduate student.

"The group of professors who are 'in charge' now are sort of much more responsive to graduate students than they seemed to be about five years ago," Gordon says.

But some are more skeptical about new faculty member's receptiveness to standard English department practices. One source says that some of the biggest names in the department are often often the least flexible.

"When you hire people when they are famous, you are not asking the question--and Harvard absolutely does not ask the question--are they good teachers, will they make much contact with students? Fillingham asks.

But famous professor help attract other famous professors. Regardless of what questions Harvard asks, star scholars are likely to keep joining the department.

"I was having a conversation last semester with one of the most distinguished Shakespeareans in the country, who said to me that there was no English department in the world where he would rather be than Harvard," Knowles says.