"I really don't understand why the Business School gets this rap for being either ornery or uncooperative," says Fineberg. "It escapes me, because my experience is so totally contrary to that.

"From the time that I became dean, I can tell you without reservation that among the most important friends of [the School of Public Health] from outside our school's alumni are alumni of the Harvard Business School, many of whom were introduced by John McArthur," Fineberg continues. "So, I say, where's the beef?"

McArthur, too, denies the charge that he is not cooperative. And the dean talks passionately about the importance of promoting University-wide cooperation through the five interfaculty programs--dealing with the brain, the environment, health policy, public education and ethics--to be targeted in the upcoming fund drive.

"We can't be a successful commercial school just sitting over here in Allston," he says, echoing a standard Rudenstine refrain. "For us, the success of the University is one of the most important things that has to happen."

Still, some Harvard administrators say the cooperation McArthur evidences is a relatively recent development.

"The pace of it is accelerated markedly," says Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Fred L. Glimp '50. "Neil [Rudenstine] has really managed to forge a partnership with him.

"[McArthur] feels enormous responsibility for the quality of his school but he's being a darn good University citizen now," Glimp says.

The dean admits that he puts special value on the accomplishments of the Business School.

"When Derek [Bok] brought me over, probably three weeks after Halloween, to tell [the Board of Overseers] what he'd done...I was clear about my priorities," McArthur says. "For me the first one was my family, period. The second was my friends. The third was the Harvard Business School and the fourth was Harvard."

Rudenstine says that approach is appropriate.

"Every dean has to worry in the first instance, quite properly, about the health and vitality of the school that they're in charge of," the president says. "At the same time, I think they realize that if we don't all succeed, whether a few succeed or not, we haven't really succeeded as an institution."

Still, while McArthur's colleagues around the University defend the dean against allegations that he is uncooperative, some do acknowledge instances of the Business School's seeming isolation from the rest of Harvard.

Provost Green, for example, concedes that "it is a bit odd" that he is not allowed to use Shad Hall, the opulent new gymnasium and recreation center McArthur had built at a cost of $20 million.

"I don't want to make too much of it," Green says. "It kind of goes with the way Dean McArthur runs the school. The idea is, these are his people and this is his family."

McArthur says Shad Hall is not open for University wide use because it is too over-crowded already, with 300,000 visits annually. They include affiliates of the Business School and high school students invited in on weekends from the surrounding Allston and Brighton communities.