McArthur declined to put an exact figure on howmuch the Business School hopes its alumni willcontribute to the fund drive. "Of the funds thathave come in so far, a large part of it has comefrom alumni of this school," he said.

The dean spoke passionately about the need forUniversity-wide cooperation on issues of commonconcern. And he said that while it is important tomaintain the strength of Harvard's individualschools and departments, it is also important tofacilitate easier cooperation between individualfaculty members across the University.

"To me, it's a no brainer," McArthur said. "Buthow to do it is a bit of a challenge...We're notgoing to make it as a University if we don't havethe strongest possible units."

McArthur's comments came just a few days aftera column in The Boston Globe suggested he wasusing the excuse of a budgetary emergency todiminish expectations for his school'sparticipation cooperation in the fund drive.

Some observers have suggested that the dean'sappearance at Yale was deliberately timed to drawmedia attention away from the release last week ofRudenstine's report on the University, whichoutlines the philosophical reasoning behind thecapital campaign.

But McArthur said such allegations were false."I have no idea when [Rudenstine's] reports arecoming out," he said. "The day I went [to Yale]was set last summer.