Provost Albert Carnesale, who will be leading the search for Proctor's replacement, said the University had no way of knowing that Proctor would not adjust well to Harvard.

"Nobody is perfectly suited to this job," Carnesale said in an interview yesterday. "I don't know that this was predictable to Allen or to us. We may have learned what may be more important to success in this position."

Proctor said temperament may be the most important factor in dealing with Harvard's management structure.

"This job requires someone who likes developing consensus, bringing lots of people together," Proctor said. "To me, it's usually pretty apparent what the solution should be. I feel like we should implement it and move on. Financial decisions here are University-wide and involve 20 or 25 people. It's just not fun for me."

Proctor, who is also a lecturer at the Kennedy School, will work as a special assistant to Rudenstine until the end of the academic year to help ease the transition to a new vice president.

Proctor's main attribute, Carnesale said, is his ability as a "shrewd" financial manager.

As a result, one of his major tasks here has been examining Harvard's budgets and looking for ways to cut costs.

"We've had tremendous successes," Proctor said. "I just wish we'd had three times as many of them in this amount of time."

The management of most universities, Carnesale said, follows a more horizontal structure than that of most corporations, whose power structures are arranged vertically.

Harvard, he said, is probably more decentralized than any other university in the country.

"Ours is not the ideal working place for someone who is used to structure," Carnesale said.

Proctor said Rudenstine and Carnesale have been very supportive of him in his position and in his decision to leave.

"I went to the president and provost and said that I'm not having fun here. We all agreed we need a vice president who is comfortable with the Harvard environment," Proctor said.

Proctor's Future

Proctor will be staying on as a special assistant to Rudenstine to help with the transition to the new vice president, despite the fact that the previous search took more than a year.

"I decided to move on, and rather than work on a future I didn't want to be a part of, I felt I should move quickly," Proctor said. "When I talked to the president and the provost, they said they wanted to move on and get someone in place as quickly as possible."