Until recently, Neil L. Rudenstine hadn't noticed that the clock in the corner of his office has a fly painted on it. When his assistant pointed the insect out to him, the outgoing University president has decided it's probably got something to do with "time flies."

He's also considering what the passing of this year is going to mean for him. Nearly five months into his final year, he's had time to think.

One option: a move back to the classroom. It's a possibility he's seriously considering.

When asked if he would return to a previous academic home--Princeton, where he served as provost-- Rudenstine said that if he returned to teaching, it would be at Harvard.

"It would be here," he says. "I would need to prepare."

It's been 33 years since he was last a full-time professor, and he admits that he may have some catch-up reading to do.

"I don't want to let Harvard students down," says Rudenstine, who is a scholar of poetry. "It's a question of how fast I could retool."

While he probably wouldn't return to the classroom next fall, it's possible that he would teach the following year, he says.