The last two have a similarly collaborative ring: sciences and the arts are firmly in the fiefdom of Dean ofthe Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

All four share several common threads, and intheir similarities highlight the way Rudenstinewill continue to manage his empire after thecapital campaign.

First, they are all visionary but vague,starting the process of change but leaving lots ofroom for his consensus-based cabinet government tocarve out the specifics.

Second, they will all be implemented by someoneelse, in keeping with Rudenstine's shunning of thecampus limelight.

"I'm just not going to be the person standingup and telling other people what to do,"Rudenstine says. "But that doesn't mean I'm nottrying in some way to advance the cause."

Third, they are all collaborative, implying acooperation between Rudenstine and his underlingstypical of a president without the ability tomanage by fiat.

"Who gets the credit, I could care less,"Rudenstine says. "That's not the nature of thejob. The nature of the job is to get it done."

In light of both Rudenstine's style and trackrecord, these goals and their similarities makeperfect sense.

Effective But Invisible

Rudenstine signed on in 1991 with a promise tohelp unify the University, which at the time hecalled "fiendishly decentralized."

But the deans of Harvard's myriad schools, longaccustomed to a deep-thinking president and alarge measure of self-government, did not buy ineasily.

And so the combination of presidential visionand administrative stubbornness was anear-complete dependence on government byconsensus.

"Neil's power as a president is the power ofappointment and the power of persuasion," saysJames H. Rowe III '73, vice president forgovernment, community and public affairs. "Becauseof how decentralized Harvard is, he has to spendmore time getting consensus, gettingcollaboration."

The most concrete sign of this focus onconsensus is the Academic Advisory Group--amonthly gathering of deans and Mass. Hallofficials that considers and often amends most ofRudenstine's proposals.

By concentrating power in this consensus-ruledcabinet, Rudenstine created an arena for the"intellectual persuasion" that gets things done inhis Harvard bureaucracy.

But he effectively barred himself from usingMass. Hall's bully pulpit as way to call forchange publicly and unilaterally.