Although current senior tutors say academic work is important, junior faculty members argue that any benefit undergraduates would gain from having assistant and associate professors as senior tutors would likely be slight and would entirely depend on the person.

"From the undergraduates' perspective, academic tutors may increase academic engagement for some, but only on the margin," says Assistant Professor of Government Andrew M. Moravcsik. "What really matters is what happens in the classroom--a focal point for reform, in my view, far more important than the housing system."

"I don't think it's so much of a question of whether [the senior tutor is] junior faculty or a grad student or just a full-time administrator," Dickinson says. "It's not so easy to say, 'Oh, because they're junior faculty, they're bringing this or that."

But many faculty members say they enjoy time spent with undergraduates.

"Of course, some junior faculty members become very involved with 'undergraduate affairs,'" says Associate Professor of Geophysics Goran A. Ekstrom. "I am the head tutor in Earth and Planetary Sciences, and even though it requires quite a large time commitment during the beginning and end of the term. I find it worthwhile, and I think many others feel the same way."

Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael E. Hasselmo is currently a resident tutor in Eliot House.

"Personally I could probably manage [the job of senior tutor], but I suspect Harvard would find it difficult to recruit junior faculty for all the senior tutor positions unless they explicitly stated that this could be beneficial in a tenure decision," Hasselmo says.

"The University does not explicitly reward junior faculty for their level of commitment to undergraduates, though most junior faculty find it intrinsically rewarding--partly because many of the students we teach will eventually be colleagues," he says.

Hasselmo says he spends about 12 hours a week on House duties, including academic advising, writing letters of recommendation, hosting study breaks and attending House activities. He also teaches a House seminar, which takes additional time.

Doing Research

Historically, the majority of Allston Burr Senior Tutors were faculty members.

"A member of the Faculty has been appointed Allston Burr Senior Tutor for each of the eight [House]...[and] relieved of one-half of his normal teaching load," reads the President's report from the 1952-53 academic year, when the position was created.

By the 1993-94 academic year, according to the Report on the Structure of Harvard College, none of the 13 senior tutors were professors. Four were lecturers, two were instructors or preceptors, two were administrators and five were doctoral students.

Many junior faculty members say they are concerned that a senior tutor would simply not have the time to do the research necessary for achieving a tenured position.

Even the Report on the Structure of Harvard College acknowledges. "The Masters, unanimously appreciative of the difficult and time-consuming demands of the Senior Tutorship, worry that it is more than a half-time position, and not comfortably balanced with teaching and research."