The mass exodus of junior faculty in the English department, a breach in the tenure process and the gone one day, back the next flip-flop of Waggoner Professor of Economics Robert J. Barro added to the mysteries surrounding tenure at Harvard this academic year.

Assistant Professors Shannon Jackson and Nicholas Jenkins will leave the English Department next year, bringing the total of departing junior faculty to seven within two years. Many cited the virtual impossibility of receiving tenure as the reason for their departure.

Harvard has always held the ad hoc committee review of its tenure process sacred. So many were stunned this April when Andrew G. Myers received tenure in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department without an ad hoc committee review.

President Neil L. Rudenstine admitted that this is rare, but does not indicate a revision of the tenure process.

"This procedure, though extremely rare, was not precedent-setting," Rudenstine said, noting it has occurred once before in the past seven years during his tenure.

In addition, Barro decided to accept a lucrative tenure offer at Columbia and then changed his mind shortly after, deciding instead, to remain at Harvard.

With last year's tenure denials of Peter Berkowitz and Bonnie Honig still fresh in many minds, many question whether or not Harvard's tenure system is the best one possible. The closed-door process is cloaked in mystery, leaving many confused about the qualifications necessary to receive tenure.

Harvard's tenure system is very different from other institutions. The department nominates a candidate who then is examined by the Dean of the Faculty and the Academic Deans. After this review, the Deans may pass the nomination onto Rudenstine.

In order to receive the tenure nomination, the nominee must be judged to be a leading scholar in the field. A short list of five candidates is sent to leading scholars. The scholars are then asked to evaluate the candidates.

The letter requesting outside evaluation does not indicate if any person on the list is being seriously considered for tenure. Harvard is unusual, because instead of using outside evaluation as a measuring stick, the University may offer tenure to an outside scholar rather than its own internal candidate.

Harvard then convenes an ad hoc committee of experts from within Harvard and from other universities. The committee advises Rudenstine on the tenure candidate.

Critics argue this system makes receiving tenure as a junior faculty member a near impossibility.

English Department Woes

The departures of Jackson and Jenkins are not the first within the English Department. These two departures join the ranks of Jeffrey Masten, Cowles associate professor in the humanities, who departed after a tenure denial last year, and four other un-tenured professors who have left the English department in the last two years.

"The evidence is pretty unambiguous--there are problems retaining and recruiting [junior faculty members]," Masten said.