Professor Marc D. Hauser was thankful that he knew the day's lecture subject like the back of his evolved hand.

As Hauser prepared to address his core course, Science B-29: "Human Behavioral Biology" last Friday, his students couldn't help but notice how giddy he seemed.

"He looked really happy," said Hillary R. Chart '01, a B-29 student. "He gave someone a hug, we saw."

Hauser had just been granted tenure as professor of psychology only 30 minutes earlier.

Whereas most tenures are announced in stuffy press releases to be reported in the next day's Crimson, Hauser's students learned first-hand the career-capping news.

Several students in the class, known colloquially as "Sex," said they first thought something was brewing when Hauser, although usually gregarious, appeared even more resplendent.

After a musical advertisement by the a capella group "Under Construction," class co-professor Irven DeVore then stepped up and addressed his students.

"I have an announcement of grave importance to the future of the intellectual life of Harvard," said DeVore, who is Moore professor of biological anthropology.

"It is that a junior professor in the ranks has been appointed to a tenured position in the "old boys club.'"

"The event we celebrate is almost as rare as the [Boston Red] Sox winning a pennant--that is a promotion from within the ranks," DeVore said.

"You know, to do that, you have to be a genius...not only in your own mind, but in the minds of the administration as well," he said.

Hauser then stepped forward to raucous applause.

"It was very exciting," the former associate professor said in an interview.

"I was very overwhelmed by the class response," Hauser said.

Under Construction then led over 400 assembled students in a boisterous round of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow."