Nesson acts as an advisor to Peter Berkowitz and had emerged as a strong advocate for unveiling the intricacies of the tenure process. Nesson used the Berkowitz tenure case in his Law School class "Evidence" this year.

He published the names of five scholars whom he believes served on the ad hoc committee which considered Berkowitz's tenure bid on a Web page for his winter-term class.

The membership of such committees is ordinarily kept secret by the University as a matter of policy and Knowles refused to comment on the names Nesson had posted, insisting on the confidentiality of the proceedings.

Nesson also continued to question another hotly-debated part of the tenure process: the composition of the ad hoc committee.

Nesson said the ad hoc committee needs to be "fairly composed of the most distinguished and appropriate and unbiased persons to advise the President." He argues that "the Berkowitz ad hoc was otherwise."

One member of a humanities department questioned whether any humanities case--unlike Myers' case--would ever be considered "definitive enough to dispense with an ad hoc committee."

Knowles said there is no difference in the tenure procedure for different disciplines.

"The tenure process is exactly the same across the humanities, social sciences and sciences," Knowles said.

Reversal of Fortune

Barro marked one of the more bizarre tenure issues this year. Barro, a tenured professor at Harvard, announced that he would accept a professorship at Columbia University. But shortly after this announcement, Barro reversed his decision and decided to remain at Harvard.

Barro turned down from Columbia a very lucrative offer. The package reportedly consisted of a $300,000-per-year salary, plus a $55,000 post for his wife and a place for his son in a Manhattan private school.

Harvard administrators said they did not "top" Columbia's offer. Instead they attributed Barro's flip-flop to a change of heart.

"We can't and we won't. As a matter of principle we won't," Rudenstine said. "The only way you can [do that] is to have what we've always refused to have: highly distributed Faculty [salaries]."

But some question whether the bidding wars will leave Harvard out in the cold in the future.

"It seems to be that you can't be the best university in the world or even compete with the best universities in the world if you're not willing to set aside resources to go after faculty like Robert Barro," said Jeffrey G. Williamson, chair of the economics department.