Three years from now, Harvard Law School will graduate more than 50 black lawyers in a class of almost 550. That same year, the University of Texas Law School will not graduate a single black lawyer.

Only one black student out of the 11 admitted to the University of Texas Law School's class 2,000 accepted an offer to join a class of roughly 500 in the fall, but he backed out, intimidated by the media attention surrounding his decision.

Last year, however, the law school had 40 black students. The drop comes a little over a year after the fifth circuit of the Federal Court of Appeals prohibited the racial preferences Texas used in admission.

Leaders in higher education including President Neil L. Rudenstine are now struggling to stave off the so-called whitening of higher education. Rudenstine has committed himself to this movement, but his efforts prove more complex for him than for most.

Among universities, Harvard has one of the oldest of diversify. For nearly 125 years, the University has reached out to a wide variety of students, but Rudenstine's efforts on diversity this year are a response to political circumstances as well as part of his struggle to don the heavy mantle of Harvard's leadership on this issue.

The Reticent Bully

High-ranking administrators describe Rudenstine as "Charming" and "warm and compassionate." These traits have--some say for worse infused Rudenstine 's leadership style on the diversity front where his method has been one of quiet persuasion, often one-on-one with other academics.

As Harvard's president, he has access to a bully pulpit with a political voice as strong as the phrase implies. But observers often conclude that Rudenstine should tread less softly and do more with the University's big stick.

Only recently Rudenstine has begun to follow this advice.

His most recent work on this front was orchestrating a three-quarter page advertisement for diversity in The New York Times, published under the auspices of the American Association of Universities (AAU) and signed by its 62 member-schools.

The advertisement gives no sign that Rudenstine was behind it, an anonymity typical of Rudenstine's leadership on this issue.

Until the advertisement, all of Rudenstine's work on this front has been the quiet, contemplative efforts of a man who modeled himself more as an academic than a political leader.

He has lectured he American Council on Education, the Massachusetts Historical Society and Princeton alums on the subject.

Typical of Rudenstine's style, he attended a small dinner party this winter in California to discuss his views on diversity with educational leaders in the state which sparked much of the current controversy over diversity. (Please see side bar.)

He authored his second President's Report to the Board of Overseers on the educational significance of diversity and Harvard's history of promoting it. The report was distributed by the AAU to member presidents.,