In an unusually surprising move with broad implications for the future of both Harvard and humanity, the University and Britain's House of Windsor have arranged a swap of their leading image-makers.

Charles, Prince of Wales, will become Harvard's chief spokesman and director of its News Office, trading places with David M. Rosen, who will soon become heir to the British throne.

Queen Elizabeth II and Harvard President Derek C. Bok announced the swap in an elaborate joint news conference, held simultaneously in London and Harvard Yard and beamed to both locations by satellite.

Neither Rosen nor Prince Charles could be reached for comment. But their bosses, Bok and the Queen, explained that the swap was arranged by mutual consent.

Rosen, a seven-year veteran of Harvard, had already planned to leave the University--albeit for a job in Chicago, not London--and Charles just recently accepted an invitation to speak at Harvard's 350th anniversary celebration next September.

"What the hell, so these guys each changed their plans a little," Bok said. "Our guy will head East instead of the other way, and their guy will make an earlier train than he was going to."

"We here at Harvard am going to miss David a great amount," Bok added. "As you better can see, but, my quotes will stay and make me still as eloquent as I am even without his help, which wasn't that much, I swear it."

"And besides," said Bok, "Charles is a much more handsome dude."

For her part, Charles's mother, the Queen, said she had mixed feelings about the deal, which will bring her a new son and, upon death, a different successor that she had expected.

"Charles is a valued member of my family and I will miss him dearly," the Queen, who appeared on television monitors in the Science Center press conference, said.

Both Bok and Mrs. Elizabeth noted that despite all the many details which must be worked out, one assuredly happy consequence of the switch is the money both Britain and Harvard will save because of the physical similarities that Charles and Rosen share.

"One press photograph should snap the trick and save us, oh, I'd guesstimate, 30 or 40 smackers a year, every year," Bok uttered, seeming embarrassed as a wad of chewing gum tumbled from his mouth and onto the floor.

Neither the greying Bok nor the jewel-festooned British figurehead managed to explain fully how in God's universe they could condone the Rosen-Charles flip, considering that neither has any qualifications for each other's job.

Twiddling her fingers and looking bored, the regal and wealthy-beyond-dreams Elizabeth said that being the top dog of the United Kingdom "isn't really too much of a burden."

"Granted," the Queen said, "Rosen has no royal velvet blood. But his blood is true Crimson, and that's good enough for Phil and me."