News

Penny Pritzker Says She Has ‘Absolutely No Idea’ How Trump Talks Will Conclude

News

Harvard Researchers Find Executive Function Tests May Be Culturally Biased

News

Researchers Release Report on People Enslaved by Harvard-Affiliated Vassall Family

News

Zusy Seeks First Full Term for Cambridge City Council

News

NYT Journalist Maggie Haberman Weighs In on Trump’s White House, Democratic Strategy at Harvard Talk

Tenure Process Works Well

Letters

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

To the editors:

Recent articles in The Crimson have focused on the failures of the Harvard University tenure process and, in particular, the unfairness of low te rates for junior faculty.

As a non-tenured faculty member who will almost certainly not get tenure, I think the system is perfect. Because Harvard is a great institution it can hire the best professors in the world, not the best professors who happen to be at Harvard. Why would Harvard students want something different?

Harvard has great tenured professors and can compete with any institution at the tenured level (witness last week's hire from the another great school, the University of Chicago).

Perhaps the system is for great senior professors but poor junior faculty? I submit, without quantitative data, but based on extensive personal data, that Harvard is unsurpassed as a choice for assistant professors.

Harvard has the best faculty in the world. This is the result of, not in spite of, a great promotion system. TERENCE C. BURNHAM   March 9, 1998

The writer is a visiting assistant professor at the Kennedy School of Government.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags