To the Editor:
I am writing regarding the article titled "Departments grant tenure to professors" [The Dartmouth, May 28]. I am correctly quoted in the article, but the article and its title give an impression that is wrong and should be corrected.
Departments neither grant nor deny tenure to professors.
This responsibility rests ultimately with the Trustees, who act on recommendations made by the President, who, in turn, acts on recommendations made by the Committee Advisory to the President. Historically, the overwhelming majority of this committee's decisions have been adopted by the President and Trustees. This committee reaches a tenure decision after considering a recommendation from the associate dean of the faculty member in question, a recommendation from the tenured members of the faculty member's department, and their own review of a set of evaluations that the Associate Dean and the department used to reach their recommendations.
Since this Committee need not follow the recommendations of either the Associate Dean or the department, and since this Committee alone makes what amounts to the final decision in tenure cases, it is the Committee Advisory to the President that grants or denies tenure.
