Faced with his first public questioning on the matter, President Neil L. Rudenstine yesterday declined to explain the scheduled departure of Provost Jerry R. Green.

Rudenstine said only that the outgoing number-two University administrator is an "innovator" who will continue his work on inter-faculty relations in his new position as Leverett professor.

The president was questioned by a potential member of the Class 1998 at a gathering of more than 600 visiting pre-frosh at the Union. The pre-frosh asked the president about subjects ranging from worker compensation to the core curriculum.

In response to the question on Green, Rudenstine also said that he "has a list of candidates on my desk" for the post."

"We shall move on, and it should not affect you, "Rudenstine said to the student.

The student had asked why Green was leaving and how the departure might affect pre-frosh.

The questions on Green came after nearly two weeks to refused by the administration to offer an explanation for Green's announced return to a teaching post. The departure was announced only a month before the scheduled kick-off date of the University's $2 billion capital campaign.

Officials have said a replacement will be found by the time Green leaves his job at the end of the academic year.

An advertisement for the provost's position appeared in yesterday's Harvard Gazette giving May 2 as the deadline for applications for the position.

The ad said applicants must be tenured faculty members with administrative experience, preferably with previous knowledge of Harvard's academic programs.

Although Rudenstine said last week the search for a replacement is "open," University insiders have said Kennedy School Dean Albert Carnesale is the front-runner for the position.

Worker's Concerns

Stan Wei, a pre-frosh from Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania, asked Rudenstine how the University responds to worker's concerns. Wei said he had been given a pamphlet urging students to call for the University to "be a responsible employer."

Rudenstine cited the hiring structure of therenovations of the first-year dorms, which he saidcoast as $70 million, as a model example of theUniversity's response to employee concerns.

Under the Project-Labor Agreement, which theUniversity signed with local construction unionsin 1992, only union workers can be hired torenovate the first-year dorms. In return, thelaborers accepted a 10 percent pay cut.

"We negotiated a contract which gave theworkers an incentive," Rudenstine said. "Weprovided jobs in construction at a time when therewas not much employment in construction."

Another pre-frosh said she had read criticismof the core curriculum in The Crimson, whichrecently published a three-part series on theprogram.

But Rudenstine defended the curriculum, sayingthat most students do appreciate the program.

"There is always criticism of classes,especially large ones where there are manystudents," he said. "But, most students give thecore very high ratings."

Rudenstine said that students are more likelyto appreciate the core as they grow older andgraduate.

"As student look back on their undergraduateyears, I think only appreciate the opportunity totake classes in other disciplines," he said.

He cited his experience at Princeton as anexample. "I took a science I did not want totake," he said. "I knew I couldn't take physics orchemistry, so I took geology, and I learned anenormous amount."

Rudenstine responded to a question about freespeech at Harvard by saying that the Universitydoes not restrict what students say or write inthe school's various publications.

"We have not intervened in anything a studenthas said or published," he said. "Unless it isintimidation, which is not free speech."

Rudenstine described the University as being"about inquiry and debate."

"I hope that it goes both ways, that if you saysomething you will listen to what others say," hesaid.

Senior Admissions Officer Patricia B. Callaghan'89, who directs the visiting students program,said she was pleased that Rudenstine spoke to thepre-frosh.

"I think it is important for them to see thatthe faculty and the president are all interestedin them," she said. "This is just onemanifestation of the fact he cares deeply aboutthe pre-frosh here."

Elizabeth T. Bangs contributed to thereporting on this story.