"When you start with something so big [likeCommencement], sometimes it's better to stay withthe same company," says another bus owner. "Youhave to make sure that it's done right."

Libby wins contracts, owners say, by developingpersonal connections with entrepreneurs.

For example, Rosemarie Resnik, an associate forclasses and reunions at Radcliffe, is one ofseveral University officials who have defendedMurphy's arrangement with Cavalier.

In an interview late last year, Resnik praisedthe work Libby has done for Commencement andreunions. Resnik described herself as a "objectiveobserver" who did not know Libby personally.

However, sources say that Libby and Resnik havespent time together outside of work, includingexercising together on at least one occasion. Andstate licensing records show that Resnik testifiedon Libby's behalf five years ago when the Cavalierowner applied for a charter busing license.

While acknowledging that she testified forCavalier, Resnik denied last year that she knowsLibby personally.

Despite Cavalier's reputation for goodservice, the financial success of the company isanything but clear. Libby herself told a companyemployee last year that the business is notturning a profit, according to a source.

And questions remain about how the company wasfounded. Some suggest Murphy may have helpedcontribute.

Pressed at one point last year by an employeeabout the amount of time Murphy spends atCavalier, Libby said that Murphy had as much aright to anything at Cavalier as she did.

Cynthia Winterhalter, who with her husband ranthe Ashland-based bus company Big W Trans until itwent out of business in 1992, used to supply busesto Libby for Harvard's Commencement and reunions.

She said in an interview last week that Libby,who had worked for Commonwealth Bus Company, tookover the coach service division of that companyeight years ago. Richard Zimmerman, Commonwealth'sowner, held on to the school bus part of thecompany, Winterhalter said.

Winterhalter added that she does not know whatprecipitated the split between Libby andZimmerman. She said Libby used the coaches fromCommonwealth to start Cavalier.

Libby is not indepedently wealthy, and shelives in a modest home in Jamaica Plain. But shehas at least one friend who might have been ableto help back the new company.

That friend is Murphy.

While the lieutenant makes less than $90,000 ayear as a lieutenant with the Harvard police,department sources have insisted he has outsideincome.