Harvard professor Lorgia García Peña has been described as a brilliant ethnic studies scholar and an excellent teacher by her colleagues and her students. But she was relatively unknown until a week ago, when Harvard’s administrators denied her tenure.

Now, the once obscure professor of romance languages and literatures has become a cause celebre, inspiring student protests, letters of support from hundreds of academics across the country, and a petition urging the university to reverse course signed by thousands of students, professors, and alumni.

García Peña’s case has become a rallying cry for Harvard students and alumni who have been pushing the university to establish an ethnic studies department for nearly 50 years and are frustrated by the slow progress. It has renewed criticism of Harvard’s complicated and secretive tenure system and the university’s commitment to faculty of color. And it has fueled unrest on a campus already on edge over a graduate student workers strike.