Now at the end of his second academic year as president of Harvard University, Neil L. Rudenstine can breathe easy.

Well, almost.

When he took Harvard's helm two years ago, Rudenstine was faced with a pressing concern--naming most of his top lieutenants.

Almost immediately he needed to fill four open deanships--at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School of Government, the School of Design and the School of Education.

In addition, the president needed a lawyer, since the previous vice president and general counsel had departed along with former President Derek C. Bok. Rudenstine worked expeditiously, filling all the spots by early this academic year.

On the surface, however, filling the spots might create new problems. Harvard, like the Clinton White House, might appear to be run by a bunch of greenhorns.

Not only are the four deans and the general counsel newcomers, but Rudenstine himself had never been a university president, and had not worked at Harvard since 1968. The new provost Rudenstine appointed as his administrative right hand was a professor who had never run anything larger than the Harvard economics department.

Even veteran Harvard officials say it takes on-the-job training to become a good administrator.

"None of us are professionals at... financial planning or personnel planning, strategic planning and all this stuff," says longtime Business School Dean John H. McArthur. "There's no handbook or manual or training program. It's just, one day you're in here and you're sitting at your desk."

But as a rookie himself, Rudenstine has done an admirable job of avoiding Clintonesque pitfalls of relying on too many new and inexperienced staffers.

With the exception of the lawyer--Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall, who came to Harvard from a prestigious Boston firm-all of the new appointees came from inside the University, and most of them had experience as associate deans.

In addition, Rudenstine has avoided replacing his predecessor's appointees whenever possible, once again demonstrating a preference for administrative experience over fresh but untested perspectives.

"It's good to have a few people at least who've been around for a while," he says, adding that "new blood" and "new ideas" are important.

The new president has made efforts to retain experienced hands like McArthur and Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Fred L. Glimp '50, a consummate University insider who has worked in some capacity for every Harvard president since James Bryant Conant '14.

Today, Rudenstine has only one top administrative spot left to fill, having lost Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs John H. Shattuck to the administration of another new president, Bill Clinton, this spring.