Document 51



19 January 1999


JOINT COMMITTEE ON APPOINTMENTS
Loeb House

President Neil L. Rudenstine (Chair)
Office of the President
Massachusetts Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138

Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg
Office of the Provost
Massachusetts Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138

Judith Richards Hope, Esq.
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
1299 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., 10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20004

Mr. Stephen B. Kay
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Oliver Street Tower, Suite 1700
125 High Street
Boston, MA 02110-2704

Professor Hanna H. Gray
University of Chicago
Department of History
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Ms. Sharon Gagnon
7001 Tree Top Circle
Anchorage, AK 99516





Dear Mr. Chair and Members of the Joint Committee on Appointments:

On January, 6, 1999, I submitted a formal grievance, in accordance with the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences "Guidelines for the Resolution of Faculty Grievances," to Dean Knowles and the members of the Docket Committee. My formal grievance was accompanied by an introductory letter, addressed to Dean Knowles and through him to the Docket Committee and the broader Harvard community, from my advisor, Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School.

Nevertheless, for reasons spelled out in my formal grievance, Professor Nesson and I still believe that you are the most appropriate body at Harvard to hear our appeal.

We regret that you chose not to reply both to our lengthy letter of May 26, 1998, and to the initial letter of December 5, 1997, written to you on my behalf by attorney Matthew Feinberg. In our May 26th letter we gave detailed reasons why the composition of the ad hoc committee and the involvement of Associate Provost of the University, Director of the Program in Ethics and the Professions, and Professor of Government Dennis F. Thompson impaired the process in my tenure review.

Since sending our May letter to you we have proceeded with our investigation. We have acquired new information and considerably refined our understanding of the procedural improprieties that separately and together fatally compromised the process by which President Rudenstine reached his decision in April of 1997 to reject the Department of Government's recommendation of February of 1997 that I be promoted and awarded tenure.

With this letter we enclose the letters and bound collection of materials we delivered on January 6, 1999, to Dean Knowles and the members of the Docket Committee. We also enclose letters we had published in the Crimson on January 13, 1999. We do so in the hopes that these documents will persuade you that wrongs were committed in my tenure review at the departmental level, at the level of the dean, at the level of the ad hoc committee hearing, and, we now regret to add, at the level of the appeals process.

We also hope that you will, on the basis of the reasons that we outline in our letters, now choose to assist us in setting aside President Rudenstine's decision and establishing a fair process for the consideration of my tenure.

Sincerely,



Charles Nesson Peter Berkowitz
Weld Professor of Law Associate Professor of Government
Director, Berkman Center for Internet and Society