Waters said she favors re-evaluating the entire tenure process at Harvard and changing the system at the ground level.

"In the future I would like a change of policy," she said. "I think that when a person has gotten all the way through all of these different hurdles, then when the answer is no, they should get some kind of feedback as to exactly what the reasoning was. I think it's time we had a look at the whole process of getting tenured at Harvard. It's time to think about whether our tenure process is designed for the '90s."

Both Benhabib and Professor of Chemistry Cynthia M. Friend declined to speak further about the Honig case. The other 11 signatories were unavailable for comment.

"To state the obvious, [Rudenstine's] decision puts in further doubt the claimed commitment of the administration to promote junior faculty from within, especially women," Honig said late last month.

So far, neither she nor Whinston has given any official indication as to whether they will accept Northwestern's offer.

"It's going to be a loss for the students and for the faculty," Waters said. "I will miss Professor Honig as a colleague."

Honig and Whinston were vacationing in South Carolina at the time of publication.