But many faculty criticize Harvard for causinginstability by rarely promoting its own juniorfaculty to tenured positions.

Critics of the tenure process often note thehigh rate of turnover among junior faculty indepartment such as English.

Harvard departments review untenured faculty inthe seventh year of an eight-year contract, butsome junior faculty choose to leave before theirchances for promotion are so slim.

"Some of our really wonderful people have leftearly to some other department [with a more securetenure track]," says Leo Damrosch, chair of theEnglish department. "We've got to say it's therational thing to do,"

Calling Harvard's tenure process "antiquated,"William M. Losick, chair of the biologydepartment, says junior faculty should not beexpected to stand out as the leading scholars intheir fields after seven years.

"The problem is that it's hard at Harvard for ajunior faculty to accomplish enough so that theycan measure up in an international evaluation inthe blind letter in the number of years they'rehere," Losick says.

Kenneth A. Shepsle, chair of the Governmentdepartment, says the University's tenure processhas a positive effect on education because itmeans that "Harvard undergraduate are taught byonly the best senior faculty in each field."

But some undergraduates and graduates studentssay the high rate of turn-over caused by thetenure process may have negative consequences foreducation here.

"As a student, if you invest your time tryingto work with a particular person very closely,knowing that that person might leave or is in thejob market is a great disadvantage for you,especially if you're thinking about having themadvise you your senior year," says Mare R. Talusan'97, who was Masten's senior thesis advisee lastyear.

"So many of the departments here have what theycall 'stars,' who don't really do a lot ofteaching because they devote their time toresearch," he adds.

Scott L. Newstrom, a third-year graduatestudent in English, says he was discouraged fromrequesting Masten as his advisor because it wasunlikely that the junior professor would be atHarvard long enough to guide Newstrom through hisdissertation.

Epps says he himself refused to directdissertations for the same reason.

"I wasn't sure where I would be, hence I didn'tthink it was in the best interest for the graduatestudent," he says.

He adds, however, that he was "always committedto education," despite the fact that he wasanxious about finding another job if he did notreceive tenure here.

Epps' main concern is that the process is"couched in a great deal of mystery and secrecy."