Heck also attributes the "dip" to an outdated approach to hiring faculty.

"The only way to go as a department is to find good junior people," he said. "You can have a great farm system, or you can hire a bunch of free agents. The general sense was that they were going to play the free agent market, and that doesn't work."

But ironically, department members say that the greatest obstacle confronted by the department has been Leiter himself.

"People looking to apply to graduate school don't know [the methodology of the report], and it looks very official, so we do care about it," Heck says.

And according to Striker, the department attracted fewer graduate students last year in part due to the report being "undeservedly influential."

Bouncing Back

Leiter and Harvard faculty agree that many of Harvard's problems are now being addressed more effectively than ever before.