<p>Nobody is saying that Harvey is a “random lecturer”. </p>
<p>Brian Harvey doesn’t even have a PhD in computer science (although he does have a MSCS from Stanford). His PhD is actually in education. He was also a former high school teacher. He spends relatively little time conducting formal CS research, certainly relative to the regular tenure-track CS faculty. Instead, Harvey has devoted his life to education and teaching. {Clancy, on the other hand, doesn’t even hold a PhD in any discipline.} </p>
<p>The point simply is that the CS department has proved that you don’t need research-oriented tenure-track faculty to be teaching every undergraduate course. You can indeed hire lecturers. Granted, they ought to be impressive lecturers. But they can still be lecturers.</p>