"His tenure saw [the Business School] continue its preeminence," says Gary G. Mueller '88, a first-year student at the school and news editor of its student newspaper. "He has great faculty here and part of attracting good faculty is the dean's responsibility."

McArthur's fans and friends speak of the continued excellence of the Business School's faculty and teaching programs under his leadership. Pointing to the recently undertaken comprehensive review of the school's flagship MBA program, they say the dean is on the cutting edge of advances in business education.

"He anticipates large-scale trends and gets the school out in front of them," says Provost Jerry R. Green. "Dean McArthur feels that business education is going to change because of changes in technology and because of changes in the business world...and he's kind of planning ahead of those changes."

McArthur--who talks of the Business School alternately as a "community" and a "family" also wins praise for his relationship with the school's students and, especially its faculty Walking around the carefully man icured campus, the dean greets many passers by by their first names, often asking about specific details of their lives.

"He's almost like a parent to the faculty," says Green. "He knows everybody personally. He knows everything about their lives."

"It's a very lean administration," Green adds. "The entire thing is faculty-run and he has a way of moving people from the chairmanship of this to the chairmanship of that and after a while they know the whole school. That gives the place a real tight feeling from the faculty point of view."

"I think most faculty respect him. I think most students like him," says Mueller. "I think he does have concern for students and faculty."

But the dean has his critics as well. Indeed, many of the very same qualities that win him praise in some corners--including the Business School's tightly knit character and the success of its fundraising efforts--are attacked by others.

Some students say McArthur is not as accessible as he is often made out to be. Even with the changes in the MBA program, they say, the Business School's curriculum lags behind other schools.

"McArthur is old school," says one first year student, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He's what the Business School was not what it should be."

McArthur's Business School is isolated from the rest of the University, the critics argue. Some charge the dean with failing to participate in the larger vision of cooperation outlined by President Neil L. Rudenstine. He can talk, the critics say, but when it comes to giving up large and wealthy alumni donors to other parts of the University, McArthur.

"[McArthur] was not enamored by the thought that he should [steer alumni donors to other divisions of the University], because he thought it would come out of the Business School's contributors," says Warren Alpert, a New York entrepreneur and 1947 Business School graduate who this year donated $20 million to the Medical School.

"But Rudenstine was very persuasive and [the Business School is] now sharing with the other schools," Alpert says.

McArthur's colleagues deny the charges.

"John has made it extremely clear from the moment I arrived that he wanted to help," says Rudenstine. "He really has."