But Harvard has no such built-in tenure system. And junior faculty members generally come here for temporary stays. Statistics indicate that only a small percentage of "ladder faculty"--Harvard's term for assistant and associate professors--go on to attain tenure.

"Harvard is a very unusual university", says Sorenson.

The standard procedure at Harvard is as follows.

.Scholars who enter the system as assistant professors are reviewed in their fourth year for promotion to the associate level.

.If promoted, a faculty member serves until his or her seventh year, when a tenure review may be initiated at the discretion of the department.

.If the tenure committee recommends the candidate, the president convenes another committee of senior faculty to review the candidate or candidates. The final decision rests with the president.

The administration recently established a database that allows it to track faculty members through the tenure process.

The first case to be examined is of junior faculty members who came to Harvard in the 1984-85 academic year and are eligible for tenure review this year. That year, 49 scholars in all were recruited. Of the 37 who stayed at Harvard long enough to be considered for associate professorships, 35 were promoted to the posts.

Just 24 of these, however, underwent preliminary review for tenure, not including the two faculty members who waived such review.

Of the original 49, only six received tenure this year after their seventh year in the system. One review is still pending.

Defenders of the University point out that some of these professors left before tenure review.

But the low number of tenures--just 12 percent of those who entered the faculty eight years ago, and 25 percent of those who underwent preliminary review--demonstrates the slim chances of junior faculty members receiving tenure.

While students aren't always aware of these difficult odds, faculty members are. Junior professors come to Harvard prepared for temporary stays, according to Associate Professor of Government and Social Studies Houchang E. Chehabi.

When he was recruited by Harvard, Chehabi recalls, he was told immediately that he would not likely remain beyond his seventh year here.

Chehabi says the Harvard administration informed him that "basically I shouldn't expect tenure, even though in rare occasions exceptions are made".