SECOND PHASE

The tenure question has not been blazing any headlines of late, and the lack of concrete news has produced the impression that the whole problem has been permanently disposed of. Actually the controversy has merely proceeded into a second stage whose outcome will be as Harvard-shaking as that of the first. It has been recognized from the beginning that there were two more or less distinct issues involved. The long-run problem of flexibility in the system of appointments was debated and settled in spirited faculty meetings featured by ample journalistic spreads. But the immediate problem of the blow to Harvard's teaching by the dismissal of several assistant professors last June is at present being argued in undercover negotiations between individual departments and the Administration.

The settlement of the long-range issue can only be assayed as a victory for the "members of the opposition." Their basic charge was that the "eight years and up or out" tenure policy was stubbornly inflexible, and that if it were applied mechanically it would have sorry effects on Harvard teaching standards. The degree of flexibility which they advocated has now been incorporated into the tenure policy by the new system of swapping professorships between departments and by the faculty motion to approve frozen associate professorships. So far so good.

But these new systems of appointment in themselves do nothing to alleviate the strain on present instruction which was created when the assistant professors were sent down the chute last spring. At that time several departments were left under-staffed in vitally important fields, and the situation can be corrected only by rehiring several of these men--of proven brilliance--where they are needed. The new policies provide the instruments by which this therapy can be accomplished, for the men can be taken on as additional associate professors.

And this should be the result of the negotiations now in progress between the Administration and various departments. More specifically, the English and Government Departments should request that they be granted more associate professorships--to be filled by the men in question. If the Administration does not see eye to eye with the departments on what the necessary "exceptional circumstances" are, they have the right to bring the matter up before the whole faculty.

When all is said and done, the case of the assistant professors is primarily responsible for bringing up the tenure controversy. The whole business might never have arisen if students and faculty members had not become acutely aware that certain excellent professors giving superior courses were being forced to leave. In fact, the only reason for participation in the controversy by students--who rightly have a short-run view--was the hope that some arrangement could be made to keep the men. With the new rules of the game, the original slip can be corrected.