"It's not just your work that is being evaluated, your reputation is being evaluated. You have to be doing your work and making your mark outside Harvard too," says Nord.

"Anything done for the University but not visible outside isn't going to help," says Jayne Assistant Professor of Government Mark A. Peterson, the department's head tutor. "Anything that interferes with making a name for oneself interferes with the chances of being tenured."

Senior faculty members agree with Peterson's assessment of the tenure system, but many add that the current system is designed to maintain high academic standards and should not be changed to accomodate what many call the "good citizenship" activities of junior faculty.

"Tenure at Harvard is very dependent on the outside reputation of the candidate. Because of that, you will inevitably see that scholarship matters even more," says Sociology Department Chair Aage B. Sorensen.

And Kenan Professor of English and American Literature and Language Helen H. Vendler adds that, while departments often do consider University service, senior faculty are really the overburdened workers in the community.

"The thing is, it is a constant problem for us too. It is not as though we are not aware of how hard it is to keep your work going," Vendler says. "If someone can't keep their work going when they are doing lesser service then they won't be able to do it later. There is some quality you are looking for of an ability to package your time."

Because senior faculty are asked to evaluate candidates for tenure around the country, to travel and speak at conferences and to sit on other universities' ad hoc committees, the amount of time they spend doing service work is considerably more than what junior faculty spend, Vendler asserts.

But many junior faculty say that they contribute as much time as any senior professor to the University--even as they struggle to finish the scholarly work that is expected of those seeking promotion.

"Before I came here a number of people said to me `Whatever you do, don't be head tutor,'" Peterson says. "Junior faculty are not reticent enough about accepting responsibility."

"If anything the University is really benefiting tremendously from a group of junior faculty that is giving much more to the University than they will ever get back," Peterson adds.

For many junior professors the issue is where to find more time for scholarship. If the University grants them an additional semester of paid leave time--they currently get one semester--many say that could make the difference for completing the second book, which often determines tenure in the humanities and social sciences.

"As long as the expectation that you need to be a superstar in x amount of time exists, then they need to give us the time," says Assistant Professor of History Eric Arnesen. History Department members recently asked Bok to allow them more paid leave time, a request identical to the one pressed by English faculty at their recent meeting with the president.

But while most faculty--junior and senior--agree that the University should find a way to give more time for junior professors' scholarship, some say that simply giving more time off is the wrong way to go about it.

"I think junior faculty could get more resources for their work at Harvard," says Sorensen. "If there were more resources available to support junior faculty in their research it would help."

Sorensen and some other professors advocate a system which would allow junior faculty to teach half the usual couse load, with half their salary coming from the department and half coming from a dean's fund for junior faculty research.