Report: Astronomy Profs Treated Poorly

About three blocks down Concord Avenue from the Radcliffe Quad stands Saint Peter's Church. Next to the church is an old schoolhouse, still decorated with ornate brick crosses.

The old schoolhouse no longer houses parochial education, but its occupants still spend their days studying the heavens.

However, the placid exterior of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA)--which also occupies a larger structure across the street--hides an epicenter of the debate over the University's treatment of its junior faculty members, according to a recent report and several faculty members.

Although an oversight committee report presented last fall pronounced the department "outstanding at all levels," it went on to raise questions about the adequacy of mentoring and promotion of junior faculty members in the department.

Aiming for the Stars

Formed in 1973, the CFA combines the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The center employs around 900 scientists in half a dozen locations around the country.

Around 300, including the Astronomy Department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), work on the Harvard campus.

Although the Astronomy Department consists of less than 20 tenured professors, but over the last decade, those positions have been among the most controversial in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

When Professor of Astronomy Alyssa Goodman received tenure this past summer, she jokingly credited it to a "clerical error." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Harvard's tenure system, considered by many to be the most rigorous in the country, doesn't allow for clerical errors.

The process is "opaque, subjective, and inconsistent," according to one former member of the astronomy department. As in the rest of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the astrophysics department relies mostly on hiring already-established scholars who have made their names at other institutions.

In fact, a Boston Globe study in spring 1998 showed that only 38 percent of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were promoted from within.

Other Ivy League schools like Princeton and Columbia have much higher percentages, 50 and 60 percent respectively.

But the number of astronomers who left Harvard and have subsequently gone on to illustrious careers has caused some administrators and department members to question the efficacy of the process.

A list of the junior faculty denied tenure in Harvard's Astronomy Department astounded the visiting committee that reviewed the department about a year ago, say faculty members.

Harvard astronomers familiar with the report say one member of the visiting committee told the department, "If you drew names at random from this list, you would have as good a or a better department than you have now."

The controversy surrounding the promotion of junior faculty is not unique to the Astronomy Department, of course, but astronomy faculty members assert that no other department in FAS has turned away the caliber of junior faculty as has the astronomy department.

Over the last 25 years, there have been 23 junior faculty members in the astronomy department. Only three--Professors of Astronomy Jonathan A. Grindlay, Abraham Loeb and Alyssa Goodman--were eventually granted tenure.

All but one of the other 20 have gone on to tenured positions at UC-Berkeley, MIT, Princeton and other universities in three countries. One, Brian Flannery, is a corporate executive at Exxon. One former faculty member has an institute named after him in Europe.

"[The list of former junior faculty] embarrassed the hell out of the Astronomy Department," admits a faculty member.

Jane Luu was an associate professor in the astronomy department until she received a job offer from the University of Leiden in Ireland, where she is now tenured.

Luu was instrumental in the discovery and subsequent research of the Kuiper Belt, which scientists believe is the source of short source comets. The belt of nearly 70,000 "trans-Neptunian" objects is believed to hold many clues to the formation of the solar system.

"Clearly, she is someone who should have gotten tenure," says a fellow colleague.

The report criticized not only the astronomy department's treatment of junior faculty, but the University's promotion system in general.

"The committee expressed concern about the process of tenure," says Sidney C. Wolff, chair of the visiting committee and director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories.

The visiting committee believed, she says, that Harvard's tenure process "compromises the department's ability to hire the best faculty."

Yet University officials say they do not believe that the tenure process negatively affects the quality of research and instruction.

"Tenuring junior faculty is an issue in many departments," says Elizabeth Doherty, an associate dean. While Doherty would not comment on the astronomy department's junior faculty in particular, she did say "It is often the case that junior faculty go on to distinguished careers elsewhere."

Knowles said he hopes all junior faculty go on to distinguished careers, whether at Harvard or elsewhere.

However, one junior faculty member who was contacted by The Crimson, says the problems facing junior members of the Astronomy Department go much deeper than tenure alone.

"When I was offered a permanent position at another excellent institution, I gladly accepted," a former associate professor says. "I was very very glad when I was able to leave," saying the department was "unsupportive and unfriendly."

Wolff says several new tenure appointments, including that of associate professor Alyssa Goodman, have indicated that "the climate is changing." The visiting committees' conclusion, Wolff says, was "The department is doing the best it can."

Glass Ceiling?

Margaret J. Geller's curriculum vitae reads "Professor of Astronomy (without University tenure), Harvard University."

She is one of the most distinguished faculty members in the astronomy department, having won a MacArthur "Genius grant" in 1990. She holds two honorary degrees and the Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Astronomical Society. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1992--one of only two females at Harvard in the NAS.

Yet she does not have tenure.

Ever since she was appointed an assistant professor (the lowest rung in the professorial ladder of assistant, associate, and full professorships) in 1980, Geller's tenure has been a point of contention at the CFA.

In the spring of 1997, Dean Jeremy Knowles offered Geller a Mallinckrodt chair, one of the more prestigious titles in the department.

The offer came with a caveat, however: she would still not be a tenured professor. Eight other professors, all males, hold the Mallinckrodt chair. All eight men have tenure.

"Acceptance would make Harvard look rather good even though the chair is clearly unequal to that held by the eight men," says Geller. "When I won the MacArthur, I didn't receive a different amount of money than the men did."

She has also never been asked to hold an administrative position by the College, something commonly done by distinguished elder professors.

Although she currently serves as the director of the telescope data center at CFA--a position overseen by the Smithsonian, rather than Harvard University--but does not hold the title of the directorship.

The two men who proceeded her at the post both held the title of director, and Geller says that as long as she's doing the same work, she should have the same title.

Since becoming department chair two years ago, Professor of Astronomy Ramesh Narayan has been right in the middle of Geller's disagreement with Harvard.

"[Geller's situation] has probably taken more of my time than anything else," he says. He refused further comment except to say "negotiations are underway."

"It is not a good topic to talk about," he says.

Geller says the explanation she receives from colleagues regarding her lack of titles is that she gets too "angry" to be an effective administrator.

"Like men don't get angry," Geller says.

She says she has stopped attending faculty meetings since the offer of the chair was made, saying it was too "painful."

Geller currently receives a salary from the Smithsonian tied to the civil service pay scale. Harvard pays her an additional quarter of a professorial salary, bringing her income to roughly that of a tenured professor. However, Harvard's salary is contingent on her continued employment by the Smithsonian.

Geller says she is deeply bothered by the fact that the University has no commitment to her, while she is expected to have a commitment to the University.

"It's a matter of the heart... I take teaching at Harvard very seriously and supervision of my students very seriously," she says. "Harvard should have a bona fide commitment to me."

As a junior faculty member, Geller spoke often as a part of Harvard's capital campaign. In January of 1995, Dean Knowles wrote Geller a letter thanking her for her "many uplifting [capital] campaign appearances...You continue to rivet the interest of our alumni (and our colleagues!)."

After the offer of the tenure-less chair, however, Geller stopped speaking on behalf of Harvard.

"Now I would not speak on behalf if Harvard because all I can say to people is that they should not contribute to this University until it has fair and open hiring," she says.

Many of her colleagues in the Astronomy Department agree that Harvard's bureaucracy has wronged Geller.

"Not giving tenure to [Geller] was a mistake," says fellow astronomer Alyssa Goodman.

Wolff agrees, saying that Geller "certainly" deserves tenure at Harvard.

The whole astronomy department does not share Wolff's opinion, however.

"Margaret is a very, very dangerous person," a fellow astronomer says.

Knowles refused to comment on Geller's position, or on why she was offered an unprecedented tenure-less chair, saying, "it's a personal issue."

Geller says she feels that she is running out of options. She's spent 20 years in the Boston area, and at her age she says she can't really move to another school.

Geller says many friends and colleagues, including the presidents of other universities, have interceded with the College on her behalf--all to no avail.

She recently decided to go public with her grievances in the hope that the University would improve its treatment of women faculty members.

Geller gave an interview to Continental Airlines' in-flight magazine about a year and a half ago, and another to Science magazine which will be published in November.

"I feel the truth doesn't hurt me, it only reflects badly on the University," she says.

"The actions of the University in my case make it abundantly clear that the Administration's rhetoric about Harvard's desire to attract and retain the most distinguished women in the world is empty," she says.

Geller says she "can't really find any other explanation" for her treatment then the fact that she's a woman.

"I don't really know why I've been treated differently," she says.

All she knows, she says, is that "Harvard has a problem, a deep and broad problem."