Mining through Romano's beliefs at times reveals nuggets of popular Harvard folklore laced with hard truths. One must strip away impurities of passion, but the message remains consistent.

"I don't feel confident about this class that's graduating," Romano states matter-of-factly. "I feel confident that a lot of them will obtain positions of power and influence, but I don't feel that they're going to do a lot of good." The judgment sounds harsh, but it is a familar one and not without common affirmation.

"I get the feeling that undergraduates graduate with a sense of materialism and self-centeredness, of not giving back anything to their communities," he says, naming his own Eliot House as an example. "I expect Harvard to create an environment that will expect everyone to ask, `Why am I here and what am I expected to do?' Harvard has failed if people are not leaving Harvard socially conscious."

"To me that's the Core, asking what the hell should you be doing?" says Romano, referring to the heart of the undergraduate curriculum. "You're at Harvard, do you have any responsibility? To me that's the ultimate Core."

For Romano, the issues are clear, and only his future course of action remains to be set. Ahead lies a summer job with an Atlanta social agency and then South Africa.

"All I ask is that people think about these things, and at one point question themselves," he explains. At Harvard there is a choice of how one gets an education and an obligation, he explains. "Influence and power carry some responsibilities, and that's the assumption I work with."