Thus he hopes to set up regular meetings of students, faculty and administrators to conduct an ongoing dialogue on race relations.

It is important to "think out ways of living together," says Rudenstine, who has a long-term vision of establishing Permanent structures that will help people livetogether on campus.

"Next year, we might be better prepared to worktogether and manage our lives together," he adds.

Rudenstine is aware that his administration'sability to improve race relations is to someextent limited by social forces.

"I don't think anybody is pretending that thisis an issue you solve. I mean, this is the worldwe live in," he says.

However, "the fact that it's Harvard means thatwe have a very good shot at mediating it in agood, human way," he notes.

"We have to think of this as a jointly managedhuman process...that will be continuing," he says.

Rudenstine says he is prepared to step into anysituation and intervene when he feels such actionis warranted.

"I think that it's very important for me toknow what's going on. It's very important for me,trying to do the job I have to do, to make surethat the institution is addressing what seem to meto be serious questions," he says.

If a situation seems particularly urgent, hesays, he will likely "dive in" and work directlywith whatever deans or other members of theHarvard community are involved.

"I don't think you can leave the deans tostruggle with these issues completely on theirown," he says. "They should feel some support;they should feel the direct involvement of thepresident. And the students and the faculty shouldfeel that, too."

To implement the changes that he has targeted,however, the new president will first have toovercome Harvard's notorious institutionalinertia, which often appears to rub off, at leastpartially, on its leaders.

For instance, Bok's tenure as presidentinitially promised to be quite different from thatof his predecessor, Nathan M. Pusey '28.

Students sharply criticized Pusey for callingin police to eject protesters from University Hallin 1969. Bok, in contrast, seemed willing todiscuss issues freely, often sitting down to talkwith student activists.

The young Bok came in as the Agent of Change,promising--as Rudenstine is doing now--structuresand superstructures that would bring theUniversity closer together.

But the years took their toll on Bok. Someformer colleagues say that his experience with theinstitution changed his goals and ideals.