But Jewett said yesterday that Liem never expressed any desire to fire tutors.

"I'd be very surprised if he would take any type of retaliatory action of this kind," he said."

Jewett said he will continue to meet with Liem about how to reform the tutor hiring process for next year. But he said all recommendations would be informal.

"It's not my role to mandate that a house has to have a particular system of hiring tutors," Jewett said. "There is no clear evidence of practices which violate University statutes."

Jewett said he thought Liem wanted to make the tutor hiring process "clear and appropriate" and would publish the procedure. But Jewett said no changes would be made by the end of this school year.

"My own personal view is that it is preferable to have some kind of student involvement in the process," Jewett said.

Jewett would not comment on whether the system at Dunster met that standard