Rudenstine said he usually relies on the administrator presenting the policy to the Corporation to inform the University of its approval.
"I'm not saying I don't have the responsibility," the president said. "I'm simply saying what is practical.... My normal capacity to do that is through [the officers]."
Asked if that meant Carnesale, Rudenstine said, "I don't know what he did, but I would have to ask the presenting officers [to] be responsible."
At first, Carnesale said that "it would not ordinarily fall to me to inform them."
But he appeared to back off that assertion when asked if it was Rudenstine's responsibility to have informed people.
"I don't want to point to anybody," he said. "Let me take the responsibility.... It may or may not have been [Rudenstine's place]. Why don't I take the responsibility."
Carnesale and Rudenstine both declined to acknowledge a "mistake," but other administrators said there might have been one.
"I don't think of this as being a major problem," Slichter said. "But you know in the real world, almost anything has glitches from time to time, so I can't promise you something hasn't had a glitch. But there's nothing Machiavellian."
Others disagree, however.
Green's resignation in 1994 triggered reports of personal tension between him and Rudenstine--that, sources say, were highly embarrassing to the president and the administration.
And this week, Green issued perhaps his strongest criticism of Rudenstine since resigning.
"During my two years as provost, I tried to address the principal long-term issues that will determine our future as a University.... The president was unable to focus on these questions in a systematic fashion," Green said.
Green himself declined to speculate on whether the administration was retaliating. But other members of the committee accused the administration of sinister motives.
"[Green's resignation] might have contributed to the lack of public appreciation of this [report] by the president or Massachusetts Hall," said one member of the committee, who insisted on anonymity. "Echoes of the past are part of the coolness here."
The source pointed to the fact that the committee's report was not published in the Harvard Gazette, the University's official newspaper. The Gazette has published the articles on similar reports in the past.
A source on the committee who is close to Green agreed, saying that Green's "unhappiness with Rudenstine's receptivity to the whole Science Policy Committee when it was formed was a factor in his resignation."
GGreen, chair of the Science Policy Committee and former University provost, said that Harvard's new policy "seems to have been created in a vacuum."
Rudenstine is ultimately responsible for informing the community about changes in Corporation policy, members say.
Carnesale said the Corporation needed to take action, adding that Green was responsible for seeing that the report was issued in a timely manner. He also took responsibility for not informing members of the community about the changes.