So far, that "process" has included hiring two new junior and two senior Americanist Faculty members during the last school year, and permission from University officials to recruit three more senior Faculty. MacFarquhar says the hiring committee for these new positions already has its short list of possible offers.

Skocpol says these moves amount to a new breath of life for the department.

"I think we're doing pretty well," she says.

Along with the new Faculty, Skocpol and Tuck, the department's director of graduate studies, say a jump in American politics graduate student enrollment this year shows that the department is moving forward.

Instead of the usual one or two students, they say, this year the department has enlisted six or seven students to study American politics.

Skocpol says she thinks there is "no question" that expanded funding for the department's Center for American Political Study (CAPS), which she directs, has improved recruitment.

CAPS gives support to research and programs for graduate students in American politics. The CAPS executive committee consists of government Faculty, as well as members of the social studies committee and the history and economics departments.

"I think the center and just the fact that we've got momentum generally, with the new hires, will help us," Skocpol says.