Faculty Sabbaticals Leave Gaps in Some Departments' Class Offerings

Even when everything goes as planned, American history and literature students seldom face a dazzling array of choices when seeking a course to fill their concentration's colonial literature requirement.

But in the past two years, the only two English professors who focus on the colonial period--Cabot Professor of American Literature Alan E. Heimert '49 and Carswell Professor of English Sacvan Bercovitch--have taken leaves of absence for medical reasons, leaving their courses untaught and students scrambling.

Katherine Anne Murphy '01, a history and literature concentrator, says she was one of the lucky ones. She was able to enroll in a seminar she had been planning to take all year, Heimert's English 71, "The Literature of American Religion."

Murphy says she doesn't feel that she has been put at a significant disadvantage by the dearth of offerings, because the few courses on colonial literature currently being taught are of such high quality.

"But I do feel like I've had fewer options because there are so few to begin with," she says. "There are limited choices, especially in history and literature when you have a period requirement to fulfill."

And while medical leaves are unavoidable, every year Faculty sabbaticals--often several in a single department--leave graduate students and undergraduates searching for courses and advisers.

Restricting Sabbaticals

Although there are a number of restrictions on Faculty leaves, most department chairs say tenured professors have little difficulty scheduling sabbaticals.

A Faculty-wide policy dictates when Faculty members can take time off. Under this policy, senior Faculty are entitled to a sabbatical of either one semester at full pay or one year at half pay after six years in residence. Unpaid leaves are allowed after three years in residence, according to Elizabeth A. Doherty, associate dean of the Faculty.

In addition to the FAS restrictions on Faculty sabbaticals, department chairs must also approve each leave. It is the prerogative of the Chair to negotiate with each Faculty member to maintain the course offerings.

"If we see a problem coming, occasionally a Faculty member will be asked to delay a sabbatical or a leave," says Sheldon H. White, chair of the Psychology Department. "We have also once or twice brought in a visiting professor."

However, a chair cannot force a Faculty member to postpone a leave.

"If there is a compelling publication deadline, or they can't postpone [the leave], then if they're eligible, they're eligible," Doherty says.

Since there is no way to prevent Faculty members from taking a leave once they are eligible, departments may be left short-staffed.

"We try as far as possible to schedule leaves in order that they not affect particular parts of our course offerings disproportionately; but as a matter of practicality this is not always easy," says David Blackbourn, acting chair of the History department.

[History]

The History Department--so notorious for canceling courses that frustrated students once printed a T-shirt with the word "History" in brackets--has again suffered an exodus of Faculty this year.

Of the 12 Faculty members listed as early modern or modern European historians, six are on leave. Because their courses are not being taught, the course catalog appears to list more courses in brackets than unbracketed, offered courses this term.

Blackbourn, who also teaches European history as Coolidge Professor of History, says the department has tried to replace absent Faculty with visiting professors.

"I would emphasize that we always plan ahead of time to replace Faculty on leave, so that we can attract outstanding visiting faculty," he says.

Blackbourn also stresses that when Faculty members apply for leave, they must include arrangements for undergraduate and graduate teaching.

The slim pickings in ancient history are also related to the recent departure of Faculty who had taught in both the Classics and History Departments.

"History and Classics Departments are currently conducting a joint search for an assistant professor of ancient history," Blackbourn says. "We expect that new courses from this new colleague will be on offer in fall 1999."

Where's My Post-Colonial Lit?

The English Department has been especially hard-hit this year, with both planned and unexpected leaves of absence. In a typical year, the department has four to five professors on leave each semester, says Lawrence Buell, chair of the department. But this fall, the department had seven members on leave and ten members in the spring.

"This is a year when we have an unusual number of faculty on leave," says Buell, who is also Marquand Professor of English and American Literature. "You might think the English Department is unhealthy, but this is an aberration."

Still, Buell says he believes the unusually high number of Faculty on leave is largely unavoidable due to the unique circumstances that often occasion a professor's absence.

He adds that regardless of how many absences the department is prepared for, a professor's petition for a sabbatical, even at an inopportune time, will be considered if a good case is made for it.

"Sometimes such an unusual opportunity presents itself to an individual professor that it seems wrong to deny it, even if it is out of phase," Buell explains.

A Systemic Problem?

There are two main reasons why the problem of curricular holes resulting from professorial leaves of absence is especially prevalent at Harvard, according to Buell.

Buell says he thinks Harvard is especially prone to a dearth of professors at any given time given the high profile of many Faculty members.

"Harvard faculty are very much in demand for the types of fellowship situations [that necessitate a leave]," he says.

Another factor is the size of the Faculty relative to the size of the student body. Compared with the faculty-student ratios at other front-rank universities nationwide, Buell says, Harvard's Faculty seem stretched thin.

"This isn't true just for English, but for all across the board," he stresses.

To compensate for departing and temporarily absent professors, the English department, as well as departments College-wide, often supplements a meager roster with visiting faculty.

This past fall, Visiting Lecturer on English and American Literature and Language Adrienne Kennedy taught a class on black playwrights. Isobel Armstrong, a visiting professor from the University of London, will teach classes on 19th-century poetry and prose this spring.

The English Department is currently in the process of arranging for another visiting professor to teach next year.

Department administrators also say they are working hard to ensure that this year's dearth of English professors on campus doesn't become a persistent problem.

According to Buell, five junior and two senior faculty have been recruited for the '99-'00 school year.

"We're going to, I hope, look fully staffed next year," Buell says, noting that there will be just one strained area, the English Renaissance.

There will be one departing professor and one on leave in that field next year.

Student Reaction

Students generally say the paucity of professors in their chosen concentrations has occasionally been an inconvenience but not a full-blown crisis.

Joseph Goodwin '00, a history and literature concentrator, says he is impressed with the way the English Department has reacted to Bercovitch's absence this spring, in particular.

"It's a tough situation, since the English Department especially has these strict period requirements," he says. "The English Department has been good about making sure that if there are classes like those that fulfill requirements, history and literature concentrators get preference when they need it."

Goodwin says although he knows some students were counting on taking Bercovitch's course, they understand the unavoidable and unexpected nature of his absence.

"If someone gets sick, he gets sick, and there's nothing you can do about it," he says.

Kimberlee K. Bortfeld '98, a psychology concentrator, says she thinks the College could do a better job of compensating for absent professors.

"There are definitely times when you go through the course catalogue and there's just nothing," she says.

But Tarissa Mitchell '99, an English concentrator, disagrees.

"The only problem I've ever had with this sort of thing was a couple years ago, when a teacher I wanted to take a course make necessary courses available to those who need to take them.

"If you need a course, you get it," he says emphatically.

Desperately Seeking Advisers

Although students can usually find curricular alternatives to bracketed course offerings, finding an academic adviser or a thesis adviser is often more difficult.

The 1997 senior survey, in which students were specifically asked if they had been left without an adviser when a Faculty member took a leave of absence or left the University, shows significant student dissatisfaction.

The statistics varied widely from one concentration to the next. In some concentrations, it had never happened, while in others nearly 30 percent of students reported being left without an adviser.

"Apparently there are a non-negligible number of cases in which the student does not get adequately picked up, or is left to seek out an alternate adviser independently," said Harry R. Lewis '68, dean of the college. "The departments should remember to be proactive in taking care of this problem."

In the Biology department, nearly 27 percent of students said an adviser on leave had left them alone.

William Gelbart, the head tutor for biology, said the problem of advisees being left alone is inevitable.

"It's tough because people need to have scheduled leaves and you can't really not assign someone to be an adviser because they're going to be on leave two years from then," he said.

Gelbart said that the department does provide alternate advisers when a student's primary adviser takes a leave. He attributed the student dissatisfaction expressed in the poll to "bad publicity" about the new adviser.

Julia A. Porotova '99, a psychology concentrator with a special interest in organizational psychology, was one of many left searching after her would-be thesis adviser took a leave.

"There are only two professors who do what I'm interested in, as far as I'm aware," she says. "When one of them is on sabbatical, it kind of reduces my options."

Porotova ended up working with one of the professor's graduate students.

Faculty members taking leaves of absence may also lead to the over-burdening of other Faculty members. The head tutor or other senior Faculty member may be forced to take on a number of other advisees.

"I am advising five first-year graduate students this year who will be working on modern European/British history, although only one or two of them will probably be my advisees long-term," Blackbourn said.

The absence of advisers may cause students to feel displaced and Faculty to take on extra responsibilities, but Lewis believes this advising glitch can be fixed more quickly than others.

"This problem should be one of the easier ones to resolve, since Faculty leaves are invariably known months in advance," Lewis said.

In that case, administrators should be even better prepared to deal with another long-term problem that Heimert calls "the bigger question."

"I should have left for retirement years ago," he says, "and Bercovitch will be up for retirement in four or five years. What is the University doing to find a tenured replacement in the area of colonial literature?

"If you need a course, you get it," he says emphatically.

Desperately Seeking Advisers

Although students can usually find curricular alternatives to bracketed course offerings, finding an academic adviser or a thesis adviser is often more difficult.

The 1997 senior survey, in which students were specifically asked if they had been left without an adviser when a Faculty member took a leave of absence or left the University, shows significant student dissatisfaction.

The statistics varied widely from one concentration to the next. In some concentrations, it had never happened, while in others nearly 30 percent of students reported being left without an adviser.

"Apparently there are a non-negligible number of cases in which the student does not get adequately picked up, or is left to seek out an alternate adviser independently," said Harry R. Lewis '68, dean of the college. "The departments should remember to be proactive in taking care of this problem."

In the Biology department, nearly 27 percent of students said an adviser on leave had left them alone.

William Gelbart, the head tutor for biology, said the problem of advisees being left alone is inevitable.

"It's tough because people need to have scheduled leaves and you can't really not assign someone to be an adviser because they're going to be on leave two years from then," he said.

Gelbart said that the department does provide alternate advisers when a student's primary adviser takes a leave. He attributed the student dissatisfaction expressed in the poll to "bad publicity" about the new adviser.

Julia A. Porotova '99, a psychology concentrator with a special interest in organizational psychology, was one of many left searching after her would-be thesis adviser took a leave.

"There are only two professors who do what I'm interested in, as far as I'm aware," she says. "When one of them is on sabbatical, it kind of reduces my options."

Porotova ended up working with one of the professor's graduate students.

Faculty members taking leaves of absence may also lead to the over-burdening of other Faculty members. The head tutor or other senior Faculty member may be forced to take on a number of other advisees.

"I am advising five first-year graduate students this year who will be working on modern European/British history, although only one or two of them will probably be my advisees long-term," Blackbourn said.

The absence of advisers may cause students to feel displaced and Faculty to take on extra responsibilities, but Lewis believes this advising glitch can be fixed more quickly than others.

"This problem should be one of the easier ones to resolve, since Faculty leaves are invariably known months in advance," Lewis said.

In that case, administrators should be even better prepared to deal with another long-term problem that Heimert calls "the bigger question."

"I should have left for retirement years ago," he says, "and Bercovitch will be up for retirement in four or five years. What is the University doing to find a tenured replacement in the area of colonial literature?