Gelbart said that the department does providealternate advisers when a student's primaryadviser takes a leave. He attributed the studentdissatisfaction expressed in the poll to "badpublicity" about the new adviser.

Julia A. Porotova '99, a psychologyconcentrator with a special interest inorganizational psychology, was one of many leftsearching after her would-be thesis adviser took aleave.

"There are only two professors who do what I'minterested in, as far as I'm aware," she says."When one of them is on sabbatical, it kind ofreduces my options."

Porotova ended up working with one of theprofessor's graduate students.

Faculty members taking leaves of absence mayalso lead to the over-burdening of other Facultymembers. The head tutor or other senior Facultymember may be forced to take on a number of otheradvisees.

"I am advising five first-year graduatestudents this year who will be working on modernEuropean/British history, although only one or twoof them will probably be my advisees long-term,"Blackbourn said.

The absence of advisers may cause students tofeel displaced and Faculty to take on extraresponsibilities, but Lewis believes this advisingglitch can be fixed more quickly than others.

"This problem should be one of the easier onesto resolve, since Faculty leaves are invariablyknown months in advance," Lewis said.

In that case, administrators should be evenbetter prepared to deal with another long-termproblem that Heimert calls "the bigger question."

"I should have left for retirement years ago,"he says, "and Bercovitch will be up for retirementin four or five years. What is the Universitydoing to find a tenured replacement in the area ofcolonial literature?