HLS Tenure Committees Only Advisory

To the editors:

“A Tenuous Tenure Process” (Editorial, Sept. 24), about the review of Harvard Law School (HLS) tenure appointments, is based on a serious misunderstanding of the facts.

The editorial indicates that an ad hoc committee of experts from outside HLS is expected to review a tenure case before it comes to the HLS faculty for a vote, and that the HLS faculty vote will take place only if the ad hoc committee has “approved” the appointment. This is wrong on both counts.

In the new HLS model, as in the system long employed for tenure appointments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and several other Harvard faculties, no ad hoc panel is convened until the appointment is first considered and recommended at the faculty level. Having been convened, the ad hoc committee provides advice to the president, but is not called upon to approve or disapprove the appointment.

It should also be noted that, in the ad hoc committee model, the dean of the faculty is an ex officio member of the committee and fully discusses the case with the president before a decision is reached.

Michael A. Armini

Sept. 26, 2003

The writer is director of communications for Harvard Law School.