"Stanford is a fine university and I have somegood friends there. I love Harvard, but I don'tfind it absolutely unthinkable that I wouldleave," Skocpol says.

Her departure would leave the department withonly two tenured Americanists--one of whom is theUniversity librarian.

"It would be a disaster--the nail in thecoffin, at least for American politics," Fiorinasays.

"I would be devastated," Peterson says.

Not only are top names like Fiorina and Skocpolconsidering jumping ship, but Harvard has haddifficulty convincing Americanists to come to theUniversity in the first place.

Two years ago, the department offered a tenuredposition to Duke Professor John H. Aldrich, butAldrich ultimately decided to stay in Durham, N.C.

"I really like it here at Duke," Aldrich says."The various assets are different but thedifference wasn't great enough."

He says his reasons were mostly personal, butalso says he was concerned about the Governmentdepartment at Harvard being spread too thinly.Professors' offices are scattered across thecampus at the Kennedy school and at variousacademic centers, and Aldrich says he believesmembers of the department don't have much chanceto interact.

At Duke, he says, department offices arecollected in one place to "maximize collegiality."

The University of North Carolina's James A.Stimson, who was offered a senior position over ayear ago, doesn't find the lure of Harvardimpossible to resist either.

Stimson, who studies public opinion and itseffect on government institutions, was to beginteaching in the fall of this year. He has stillnot decided whether or not to accept the offer.

"We're talking for a second year," Stimsonsays. "We're in about the same position we werelast year."

While Stimson says it is "objectively the casethat [the] American [sub-field] is the weakestunit [at Harvard]," the chief hang-up in thenegotiations has been finding a job for his wife,who is a hospital administrator. Stimson says heis "beyond hopeful" that the sub-field is alreadyimproving.

Nonetheless, the difficulty in relocating makeshis ultimate move to Harvard doubtful.

"I'm unlikely to accept the offer," he says.