When Professor of Astronomy Alyssa Goodman received tenure this past summer, she jokingly credited it to a "clerical error." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Harvard's tenure system, considered by many to be the most rigorous in the country, doesn't allow for clerical errors.

The process is "opaque, subjective, and inconsistent," according to one former member of the astronomy department. As in the rest of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the astrophysics department relies mostly on hiring already-established scholars who have made their names at other institutions.

In fact, a Boston Globe study in spring 1998 showed that only 38 percent of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were promoted from within.

Other Ivy League schools like Princeton and Columbia have much higher percentages, 50 and 60 percent respectively.

But the number of astronomers who left Harvard and have subsequently gone on to illustrious careers has caused some administrators and department members to question the efficacy of the process.

A list of the junior faculty denied tenure in Harvard's Astronomy Department astounded the visiting committee that reviewed the department about a year ago, say faculty members.

Harvard astronomers familiar with the report say one member of the visiting committee told the department, "If you drew names at random from this list, you would have as good a or a better department than you have now."