Third, Rudenstine had to initiate and complete a comprehensive academic planning report, which included critical analysis of the entire University's academic infrastructure.

Fourth, Rudenstine had to make a number of high-level administrative appointments. In his first three years alone, he had to conduct two searches for a provost, replace three of his five vice presidents and conduct separate searches for deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Design, the Kennedy School and the Graduate School of Education.

"The agenda from the first three years was very, very time-dependent, and we had a great number of things to accomplish," Rudenstine says.

"The campaign had already been announced and had to move forward, and in order for it to move forward, it had to be well-planned," he continues. "And in addition to all that, and acquaintance with the University on my part and all its programs and engaging with the agenda, a lot of appointments and an awful lot of other things that had to be done basically within 36 months."

Rudenstine says that there has been a fundamental and permanent change in the University's agenda that will ensure that he will never again be overworked to the point of burning out.

For one, Rudenstine says he is now much more familiar with the University.

"I'm not new to the University in terms of literally not knowing more than a handful of people," he says. "There's still a lot of people I'd like to get to know, and will keep trying to, but at least it's a reasonable number. That also [goes for] programs, departments and schools, trying to get to know them so I could make judgments about that."

And although many administrators have said the current, middle stretch of the fundraising campaign is its most difficult, Rudenstine says there was a different kind of anxiety in the first few years of the drive.

"We don't have to build a campaign organization to raise [$2.1 billion]," he says. "We have to raise the next set, but that's not quite the same. It's not knowing whether you can make it at all, quite honestly. It's not the same as never having done it before as an institution and doing it for the first time."

As a further safeguard, Rudenstine and his aides say the president has made changes in his work habits and schedule.

During his first three years in office, the president acquired a reputation as a relentless micromanager.

Beyond that, at least one former aide has blasted Rudenstine for getting caught up in even the most trivial of matters, even to the exclusion of broader, more important issues.

Former provost and current Leverett Professor of Inter-Faculty Teaching and Research Jerry R. Green, who was Rudenstine's top lieutenant for two years, told The Crimson recently that he found the president "unable to focus" systematically on "the principle long-term issues that will determine our future as a University."

Now, however, Rudenstine's associates say he has made a deliberate effort to refocus on larger matters.

"There is more support so that the president has more time for important things," says Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.