There, Berry helped design and run an on-campus restaurant that attracted more than a million student customers within its first nine months.

"It became a hot spot," he says.

And when the summer Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984, Berry took charge of feeding hundreds of thousands of spectators each day at several different sports arenas.

He calls that experience "an interesting study in logistics."

Later, at the University of California Irvine, Berry spent six years redesigning the entire food service program, opening seven new restaurants, "probably more than any food service in the country," he says.

Charles R. Piper, Irvine's associate vice-chancellor for student affairs and campus life, says students there thought Berry was "fantastic," and were sorry to lose him to Harvard in 1990.

"He is very energetic, a pleasure to be around," Piper says. "He has very high standards and is very concerned about students and their needs, and he wants to do the best possible job."

High Expectations

At Harvard, Berry's driven personality and high standards have earned him the acclaim of students, who laud the reforms--from sandwich bars to greater entree variety--he has brought to their dining halls.

But Berry is something less than a messiah to some of his employees. Since his arrival, there has been a barrage of complaints that his methods of increasing efficiency have placed unreasonable burdens on workers.

Using early retirement programs, Berry says he has started to trim the work force without cutting jobs, and scheduling changes are reducing overtime expenses.

Although the union is yet to follow through with talk of petitions and protests, the moves that mean efficiency to Berry are often less than welcome news to dining hall workers.

Berry admits encouraging his staff to work hard and says he expected some grumbling early on.

"I told the [food workers'] union, `Listen, the first six weeks are going to be harried,'" he says.

But citing low rates of productivity when he arrived, Berry argues that the union workers may need an extra push.