In fact, Rudenstine will continue to hold regular office hours to talk with students. Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 says Rudenstine is doing well at "listening and hearing what is going on."

Of course, bouncing around campus is in the job description, but Rudenstine's associates say he has taken an active interest in his "get-to-know-you" sessions.

"He listens very carefully," says Steiner. "He not infrequently will express a point of view at the beginning of a meeting, then...express a different point of view having absorbed different people's viewpoints."

`Supportive'

James D. Wilkinson '65, director of the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, says Rudenstine has been very supportive of the center's efforts. He says Rudenstine was "instrumental" in arranging for the Overseers to hear a report on undergraduate learning from Wilkinson and Professors of Education Howard E. Gardner '65 and Richard J. Light.

Clearly, the hands-off days of Bok are over. Rudenstine and his Mass Hall compatriots are expanding their involvement in the planning process of every part of the University.

For now, selecting a provost and filling the vacant graduate school deanships--at the Education School and the Graduate School of Design--are on the top of Rudenstine's agenda. Not much lower on the agenda is a University-wide long-term academic planning initiative in preparation for the ever-looming fund drive, which could have a target of as high as $2.5 billion.

Expanded Agenda

In addition, Rudenstine plans to appoint an administrator to help update the University's computing networks, and he hopes to launch a broad review of undergraduate academic and residential life by late spring or early fall.

In real terms, Rudenstine has barely begun to make his imprint on Harvard as an institution. He has chosen a new dean for the Kennedy School, but for now, he's still getting to know Harvard, something Wilkinson calls "a big assignment in itself."

And slowly, Harvard is getting to know him, too.