Despite the careful scrutiny within the department, 15 percent of the cases that go before the ad hoc committee--that is, cases endorsed by the department--still do not result in a tenure offer.

"[The department] can recommend someone for tenure, but, as we saw in the Masten case, it cannot possibly predict how likely the person is actually to get tenure," says Damrosch, who is also Bernbaum professor of literature.

Masten was the first junior professor in seven years to be recommended by the English department for tenure.

An `Expert' President

But with all the "expert" opinions in the process, the final decision is up to someone who is often nowhere near an expert in a given field: Rudenstine.

Rudenstine's many responsibilities for each tenure case include sitting on the ad hoc committee, reviewing the entire tenure dossier and making the final decision.

Rudenstine has these powers because Harvard--unlike other universities where many promotions occur from within and jobs are tenuretrack--requires all of its appointees to be judged "the leading scholar/teacher available in the field."

Rudenstine says he reviews each case "with the same kind of care and comes to a conclusion based on all the evidence and all the testimony and [his] own evaluation of what [he sees]."

But some have asked whether Rudenstine, a Renaissance poetry scholar, is qualified to determine whether a Turoyo language expert, an automorphic forms and number theory researcher, or a neuromodulation specialist not only "exceeds a certain threshold," but is no less than "the leading scholar/teacher available in the field."

Furthermore, the step of the ad hoc committee, intended to provide "expert" evaluation of the candidate's scholarly work, may have little marked effect in the end.

The ad hoc members do not always reach a consensus, for Knowles says the committee is almost always made up of some supporters and some detractors of the candidate. Since the committee does not vote, there is often no clear indication as to how the president should decide.

Critics also say that a formal document should exist--none does now--that would explain how much influence the ad hoc is supposed to have.

As is, Rudenstine is left with no guidelines to use in reading dossiers--comprised of 100 to 200 pages of recommendations and journal articles plus the candidate's books--for the more than 30 cases each year, as estimated by Knowles.

Of course, selecting Faculty members is only one aspect of any president's job, as much time is consumed in fundraising.

Rudenstine, in particular, was selected by the Harvard Corporation in large part because of his fundraising potential, and he has proven very successful, raising 87 percent of the Capital Campaign's $2.1 billion goal over the past four years.