A few people at Harvard are technically more powerful than the president: the six mysterious Fellows of Harvard College.

The president and Fellows make up the Harvard Corporation, which is invested with ultimate control over the University by colonial charter. This board approves appointments and oversees the allotment of millions of dollars in each year's operating budget.

It's a responsibility that the Corporation takes very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that the body is best known for the secrecy permeating all of its activities. The Corporation selects its own members for life-long terms. It publishes no minutes of its meetings and most of its members never speak to the press.

The senior fellow is Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, the chair and CEO of the Kirby Corporation. Legend has it that until recently, Stone had not spoken to an undergraduate since his own days at Harvard.

More open, but far less powerful, is the Board of Overseers, the University's secondary governing board. Elected each year by alums to serve six-year terms, the overseers meet to form committees, approve appointments, form committees and discuss issues.

The board tends to attract some of Harvard's more famous graduates. The board's membership over the last three years has included actor John A. Lithgow '67, author Michael Crichton '64, possible Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth H. Dole and Vice President Al Gore '69.

The Vice Presidents

Overseeing the University's non-academic bureaucracy are Harvard's five vice presidents.

The most visible of the five is usually the vice president for government and public affairs. Currently Paul S. Grogan, he oversees Harvard's lobbying efforts in Washington and Boston, its interaction with the City of Cambridge and its Office of Public Affairs.

Anne H. Taylor, a longtime litigator for Harvard, serves as the University's vice president and general counsel. Her charges include Harvard's stable of nearly a dozen in-house attorneys as well as the University's police department.

Thomas M. Reardon, vice president for development and alumni affairs, is responsible for raising money and keeping graduates happy. Reardon was formerly director of Harvard's office of development.

Elizabeth C. "Beppie" Huidekoper serves as the vice president for finance. In addition to having a nickname that makes her one of the three dwarfs of the central administration (Merry Touborg and Happy Green being the others), Huidekoper helps oversee the millions of dollars that flow into and out of Harvard each year.

The most senior member of the Harvard central administration--and the only vice president who preceded the Rudenstine era--is Vice President for Administration Nancy "Sally" H. Zeckhauser. Zeckhauser is responsible for the bulk of the University's massive bureaucracy, including Harvard Planning and Real Estate, Harvard Dining Services, Facilities Maintenance and Human Resources.

The Faculty

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) administration is one bureaucratic layer closer to the undergraduates, but don't expect to spend too many Thursdays sipping tea with the denizens of University Hall's top floors.