He received a Bicentennial Medal from WilliamsCollege in 1997 for his work for the public good.

Grogan says his knowledge of the mentality ofthe Boston locals will be valuable to Harvard.

"Boston's a tough town, and it's sort of 'whathave you done for me lately?"" Grogan says.

Some of Harvard's administrative officials,however, warn against reading too much intoGrogan's appointment and viewing the new vicepresident as solely focused on the community.

"Just because you're not from Washingtondoesn't mean you're not going to focus a lot onWashington," Nixon says.

She adds that it's just too early in the yearto determine what Grogan's priorities will be.

Nixon says he seemed to be aware of the issuesand "had a good sense of Washington." "He was veryengaged, very interested and wanted to know ourpoints of view," Nixon says.

While Grogan might be a Massachusetts insider,he has a vast store of knowledge about Washington,Casey says.

Casey adds he is confident that Grogan willdevote equal time to all areas.

One of the first items on Grogan's agenda thisspring may be outside of the realm of federal andlocal lobbying, with media relations becoming moreimportant to Harvard.

'The extent of media action has goneexponentially up," Rudenstine says. "We need tosee whether we are fully equipped to deal withthis new media saturation."

Rudenstine says the University wants to refineits current system to enable all schools to speakwith one voice without losing their ownidentities. Harvard needs to make clearerstatements on where it stands, he says.

To all three aspects of his job, Corlette andHarvard's lobbyists say Grogan brings aninquisitive mind and good people skills.

"Nobody I've seen comes to this with all thepieces of the puzzle," Casey says. "He's a quickstudy, has pretty good instincts and a goodperception of how Harvard University is perceivedby external audiences."

Corlette says he "really stood out as a person"among the vice-presidential candidates.