"It's an excruciatingly slow process," Thernstrom says.

"It is hard to replace distinguished people who retire," Hankins says. "Next year might be kind of lean."

While some have blamed political divisions in the department for its failure to find new members, professors say the delay is due to Harvard's high standards.

The department does not hire based upon ideology, Bisson says.

"We look for the best scholar we can find," the department chair says.

The department has also made a concerted effort to seek student feedback about course offerings and teaching style.

This year, the department sent out questionnaires to all concentrators to field concerns, and the History tutorials have been revamped.

"They are trying to get feedback from students and are making a concerted effort to improve the tutorial and to get professors for next year," says a history concentrator focusing on the American colonial era. The student spoke on condition of anonymity.

Most professors seem to see a department on the way up.

Trumbull Professor of American History Donald Fleming said last fall, "I'm not gravely worried that we're stuck in water."

The concern for students, however, is the slow pace of change.

"I think they are aware of the problems," says history concentrator Ethan Cohen-Cole '96. But, he says, professors here "work on the Harvard time scale."