Judging by the results of the recently completed $2.65 billion capital campaign, increasing the size of the faculty is a much weaker selling point than construction projects. The only goal the campaign failed to achieve was the addition of 40 new named professorships to FAS--at the hefty sticker price of $2.5 million a pop.

But administrators involved in the recruitment process say that money is a secondary issue, instead pointing to a more competitive environment for top faculty than ever before.

Fisher and Government Department chair Roderick L. MacFarquhar said that the most important reason for this shift is the increased number of two-career families--especially when both husband and wife are academics.

"We're trying to recruit individuals at a time when they are already settled and they have families," Fisher says, "We're really recruiting families. And we're in a very different housing market [than most colleges in the country.]"

Other colleges have attempted to combat professors and their spouses' reluctance to uproot their families by creating jobs for spouses, Fisher said, but Harvard does not have such a policy.

Harvard's competitors also offer perks such as reduced teaching loads and more generous leave policies, incentives that Harvard refuses to offer.

"It can become a bidding war," she said. "As a result of our recruitment, faculty at other institutions have enriched themselves. So we have to be judicious with our resources."