It is the rare undergraduate who truly cares about the powers that run this colossus of higher education. Stiff-necked bureaucratic types, after all, have little to say about whether you have a keg party in the Yard or spend your Saturday nights doing homework.

Consequently, few students--or Faculty members, for that matter--hear much about what goes on in the depths of Massachusetts and University Halls.

The President

Neil L. Rudenstine has just completed his eighth year as the 26th president of Harvard University.

Mid-sized, skinny and affable to the point of goofiness, Rudenstine is hardly the imposing figure one might expect from a giant in American higher education.

Although he holds office hours about once per month, he rarely steps into College affairs, preferring to allow underlings to handle all crises and many long-term matters, from murder-suicides to protests to public service reform.

As a result of this hands-off style, Rudenstine sometimes comes across as being too insular with respect to undergraduates. For example, three years ago as the College buzzed about the first-ever, campus-wide elections of the Undergraduate Council's president and vice president, Rudenstine was oblivious to the sea of colorful campaign posters visible from his office window--he had no idea the elections were happening.

Rudenstine's defenders say his burdens as president are too daunting for him to meddle in College affairs, and they may have a point.

Rudenstine has worked tirelessly almost from the day he took office to lead Harvard's $2.1 billion capital campaign, the largest fundraising drive in the history of higher education. With the campaign nearly complete, Rudenstine has proven he is an adept fundraiser--if not a visionary.

As president, Rudenstine also approves tenure decisions for all nine of Harvard's faculties, oversees the activities of upper-level bureaucrats and shapes the University's long-term direction and policies.

Provost

As second-in-command in Mass. Hall, Harvey V. Fineberg '67 is something of a "shadow president," serving as Rudenstine's top adviser and overseeing a potpourri of projects from information technology to the central administration's finances. The provost is also responsible for fostering academic collaboration among Harvard's nine faculties--a task easier said than done.

Fineberg, Rudenstine's third provost in eight year, is also mid-sized, skinny and professorial to the point of goofiness.

His involvement in undergraduate life is minimal, nor will you hear much from him on other fronts either. He rarely speaks out on College matters and is a strict party-liner on other issues of public interest.

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