Knowles Says Tenure Policy Unchanged

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said in an interview yesterday that President Neil L. Rudenstine's recent decision to waive the traditional ad hoc committee review of chemist Andrew G. Myers does not indicate a change in Harvard's tenure process.

"This signals no change at all," said Knowles, himself an organic chemist. "It has been done on rare occasions for decades...for compelling cases of some special urgency."

Myers, who is currently a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was recently granted tenure in Harvard's department of chemistry and chemical biology.

Myers' tenure process was unusual because Rudenstine waived the traditional step of consideration by an ad hoc committee.

"The whole purpose [of the tenure process] is to bring the very best faculty colleagues to Harvard," Knowles said. "Whatever our processes are, they should serve that high purpose."

Knowles also discussed the report issued on Monday by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which criticized teaching at research universities such as Harvard.

"I have not yet read the report or studied the data on which it was based," Knowles said.

"I hope these data are as illuminating as, for instance, the very complete information we glean each year from the senior survey," he said.

The committee said research institutions like Harvard are "guilty of an advertising practice they would condemn in the real world" because the universities attract students with big-name professors and then let them graduate "without seeing the world-famous professors or tasting genuine research."

Knowles took issue with this criticism.

"I cannot but be pleased by the fact, for instance, that more than 90 percent of the courses in the Core curriculum are taught by senior faculty," he said.

Knowles also addressed Radcliffe's future status as a college.

He said nothing has been finalized, and he is not aware of the specifics discussed.

"I continue to be sure that we should do everything to support and enrich the experience of women and men at Harvard," Knowles said.

"That's our responsibility, and we must meet it," he added.

Knowles said he recognized the importance of Radcliffe to women's history at Harvard but subtly suggested that the all-female college is currently subordinate to Harvard.

"We should honor Radcliffe for opening Harvard to women," Knowles said.