By now, it's a familiar story.

The junior professor is popular, well-regarded, beloved by undergraduates and graduate students alike. She spends seven years at Harvard, teaching popular courses that win acclaim in the CUE guide.

In the seventh year, her tenure case comes up for review. The ladder to tenure is fully in view. Instead, the professor is sent down the Harvard chute, and out the door.

It happened to Alan Brinkley, who for three straight years packed Sanders Theatre with his course on modern American history.

It happened to Mark McConnell, who achieved popularity despite the difficult and tedious material of Math 25.

And this year, it happened to Liah Greenfeld, Loeb associate professor of the social sciences, who developed a following of undergraduates and graduate students.

A committee of senior faculty decided not to recommend Greenfeld for tenure in December.

And while professors like Greenfeld view their fate pragmatically, looking ahead to positions at other colleges or universities, students losing a popular professor have little in the way of consolation.

Shortly after news broke of the Greenfeld decision, a group of 37 sociology graduate students--out of 70 total in the department--drafted a petition bemoaning the "enormous void" created by her departure.

"It was a real shock that she did not get tenure," says one student who has worked closely with Greenfeld. "A lot of people assumed that she had a very good chance."

And the pattern, the student says, was easy to recognize.

"People do have this mindset that Harvard tends not to tenure people that are in the junior faculty", she says.

Her complaint is nothing new. For generations, Harvard has had a reputation of tenuring professors who have "made it big" at other schools. Using the Harvard name, the University simply picks the best and the brightest.

Most universities in the U.S., says Sociology Department Chair Aage B. Sorenson, have tenure-track systems. Junior professors are hired with the expectation of receiving permanent appointments some time in the future.

These colleges "review anybody in the junior ranks as a matter of course", Sorenson says.