Candidates for junior professorships know that Harvard is an unlikely source of permanent appointments, Chehabi says.

"The reputation of the place is such that one comes with such an assumption," he says. "I don't think anyone comes here expecting tenure".

Chehabi says he knows people who have turned down Harvard offers in favor of tenure-track positions at other universities. But many, he says, are willing to come to Harvard even for a temporary stay.

"Harvard is like Disneyland for a scholar", he says. "You say to yourself that even though you're not going to spend your life here, six or seven years here is a very nice prospect."

"Next year I will be applying for jobs elsewhere", says Chehabi, who is in his sixth year as a professor.

Chehabi's good nature about the tenure process is not shared by all students, some of whom have reacted with anger to tenure denials.

The anger usually stems from the loss of a professor who spends time with students and often teaches the only classes in a specific field.

But administrators argue that much of students' displeasure is rooted in misconceptions about the tenure process.

Even though former Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence reformed the process in the late 1980s to remove the link between tenure reviews and openings in the department, junior professors are still not entitled to reviews, which are performed at the discretion of the departments.

In the seventh year of a junior faculty member's stay, a department can make arrangements for outside evaluations or for its own review committee. If the department votes to end the process, the junior professor's quest for tenure ends.

Other student complaints are targeted at the process by which Harvard seeks outside input about the candidate in consideration.

While other universities simply ask for evaluations, Harvard sends a 'blind letter', a list of potential candidates that includes the tenure candidate and other leading scholars in the field.

Outside scholars are not told which of the listed professors is the internal Harvard candidate.

Students often complain that this process weighs against internal or younger candidates because only older faculty have international reputations that outsiders will recognize.

According to one source, blind letters list junior faculty members with other professors with similar experience, so as not to weigh the scales against younger professors.