Lucy Koh, another third-year law student, said, "Professor Ogletree has made the largest contribution of anyone on the faculty."

Apart from his teaching and clinical work, Ogletree has participated in the Project on Community, the group working to heal tension on the Law School campus.

The faculty's vote came during the same week that The New Republic reported a rumor that Ogletree had not actually authored an article published under his name in the Harvard Law Review's 1993 issue.

Although the New Republic's article concluded that the rumor was false, it contained a host of statements demeaning to Ogletree, attributed to an unidentified professor or professors.

Dean Clark said he "didn't want Professor Ogletree's tenure decision to be affected in any way by this article."

He says he met one-on-one for about 30 hours with some of the people involved so that he could say to the faculty, that there was nothing to the rumors.

Yet some students feel Clark has not been forceful enough in his endorsement of Ogletree. They are currently meeting with him and Williston Professor of Law Emeritus Roger D. Fisher '43 to voice their concerns.

"Pretty disgraceful" is how Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz described the New Republic's article. "To knowingly publish a false rumor is the worst form of yellow journalism."

Yellow Journalism

Describing the magazine as one of "shoddy" journalistic integrity, Dershowitz added. "The New Republic is Martin [H.] Peretz's personal revenge vehicle."

Peretz, the owner of the New Republic, is a lecturer on social studies at Harvard.

Ogletree said the article has not had any detrimental effects on his career.

"It has caused the overwhelming majority of my colleagues, including one of the two anonymously quoted, to offer their enthusiastic support of the tenure vote," he said.

Ogletree speculated that the article was a reaction from conservatives in Washington to the possibility of his being offered the position on the D.C. Circuit Court vacated by Justice Clarence Thomas. Ogletree said he is not interested in the position.

Elizabeth A. Moreno, a member of the graduating class at the Law School, said the reaction among the students to the article has been "visceral."

Describing the piece as "almost McCarthyism," Moreno said she finds it hypocritical that a professor could make "anonymous accusations that are so damning" against Ogletree, and yet be part of a unanimous vote to offer Ogletree tenure