Without the course, he says, there is little tying the wide-ranging concentration into a coherent whole.

"ESPP is very difficult because it's multidisciplinary," Rest says. "I think that's why this class has been so special because it ties it all together. You have to look at economics, public policy and the environment and then put it all together."

University Policy

University officials, however, say the course was cancelled--and will remain cancelled--because of standard University policy.

Because Adelson and Perlman are non-tenure track faculty, their contracts will expire at the end of the academic year and will not be renewed, according to James J. McCarthy, Agassiz professor of biological oceanography and the chair and head tutor of ESPP.

"University policy about continuing people in non-tenured positions is that the college limit is three years," McCarthy said. Adelson and Perlman both received two-year extensions to their contracts, but were told last year that they would not be allowed to continue beyond a fifth year.

Knowles says both young academics and the University are best served when the Faculty is composed primarily of senior professors and tenure-track instructors.

"The Faculty has voted to limit the terms of these kinds of appointments for a number of reasons. The most important of which is to avoid the creation of a semi-permanent class of non-tenured faculty who have no opportunity for promotion or advancement," Knowles wrote in response to the concentrators' letters.