"Watching a fair number of the events on campusthis year," he responded, "I would say that I'vebeen sometimes surprised and sometimesdisconcerted to see the extent to which peoplehave been hurt and people have hurt otherpeople--unwittingly or wittingly or wittingly,unwittingly mostly--and the extent to whichcertain kinds of speech, certain kinds of behaviorhave really been very bruising.

"And I detect that more in the air a lot, be itethnic or racial or gender or political andoccasionally religion...than would have been thecase to this degree five or ten years ago."

Rudenstine then said these recent events havebeen "quite unsettling and occasionally, I think,really quite nasty. I'm just surprised at thelevel of vehemence...that comes spilling out."

The president also said the current tensions oncampus are the consequences of a more numericallydiverse community, and that in the long haul, theUniversity is better off for the differences.

"I think that on any long-term historical view,whatever our problems may be and they are many,we're as a society and as an institution in a farbetter place, because we're more inclusive than weused to be, and that means there are more tensionsbut better to have the tensions than to beexcluding people, by far," he said.

"But the pain and the human cost of that is areal cost, and you can't help but be sobered bythat, I think But I don't think we can give up."

Clearly, Rudenstine can not give up, howeversobering the past few weeks have been.

He has made a personal commitment to finding away to ease racial tension in the Universitycommunity, thus raising the stakes for hispresidency.

Should he succeed, he'll win widespread praiseand respect. But should he fail, the failure couldhaunt him for the remainder of his career