When Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, today's Class Day speaker, decided this spring to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, many people at the Kennedy School of Government were very happy.

Dukakis, who graduated from the Law School in 1961, has been connected with Harvard almost as long as he has been in politics. And it was at the K-School that Dukakis spent several years teaching and reflecting after he lost the state's governorship in 1978 in the wake of a rocky first term as the state's chief executive.

He recaptured the governorship in 1982, was reelected in a landslide last year, and announced in March that he would run for president, staking his candidacy on his nine years of experience as governor, his reputation for diligence and integrity, and his views on a variety of issues.

After two months of campaigning, Dukakis has moved up substantially in the polls, gaining more support than other Democrats from the with-drawal of Gary Hart, the previous frontrunner.

But despite his climb in the public opinion polls and his strength in New Hampshire, a key primary state, Dukakis is still perceived largely as a regional candidate, with strong backing in the Northeast but little recognition in the South and West, critical areas in the 1988 presidential race.

Dukakis the candidate will rely on the experiences of Dukakis the governor as he attempts to translate the Bay State's economic success into a model for national economic policy that has popular appeal.

The Iran-contra scandal, which has focused concern on President Reagan's apparently lakadasical management style, stands to help Dukakis, because friends and colleagues have long characterized him as a hands-on manager interested in the details and execution of policy.

"I've known Mike for 20 years. The thing that distinguishes him has been his interest in the details and the implementation, making sure that what sounds right in theory works, both at the Kennedy School and as Governor," says Hale Champion, the Kennedy School's executive dean who is on a leave of absence to act as Dukakis's chief secretary.

But Dukakis's inexperience with foreign policy may weigh down his candidacy. One of the central challenges facing the Massachusetts governor as he moves to form a national coalition is formulating policies to deal with issues involving the Soviets and the Third World, where he has little experience.

It is in areas where he has less experience that his years at the Kennedy School and his extensive network of Harvard contacts will come into play.

Dukakis's Harvard connection has underscored the academic link which has been integral to his development as a leading political figure. Less than a week after his March 16 announcement, Dukakis gave his first important foreign policy speech at the Law School and appointed Champion his chief order to free his then-chief secretary to campaign for him.

Dukakis stressed economic revitalization and world peace as key issues on March 19, the last time he spoke at Harvard. In his Class Day address to seniors, however, he will talk not about specific policy formulations, but about the value of public service.

"I'm quite sure [the speech] will be about the importance of public service, about doing something that goes beyond your particular needs," Dukakis says. The Governor, who has spent his entire career in Massachusetts politics, says he will ask the seniors "to commit themselves in whatever way to public service."

In Dukakis's own public service career, Harvard has played and will continue to play an important role. Coming between his unsuccessful first term as governor and a far smoother period as the state's chief executive after 1982, Dukakis's tenure at the Kennedy School was a critical period in his political development.

Dukakis's first term as governor was characterized by public relations problems, as many of the policies he instituted provoked reaction from community groups and the press. Massachusetts earned the sobriquet of "Taxachusetts" under Dukakis's leadership in the mid-1970s as the state tried to remedy an economic crisis with taxes that were among the highest in the nation.