Over 500 of Harvard's wealthy and powerful alumni and friends descended on Cambridge this weekend for the University's Capital Campaign Celebration, the capstone of the major project of President Neil L. Rudenstine's tenure.

The guest list for the glitzy day-long event Saturday included longtime Harvard donors and fundraisers who were a pivotal part of the University's staggeringly successful six-year fundraising drive.

The University-wide Capital Campaign ended Dec. 31, 1999, exceeding its $2.1 billion aim by half a billion dollars, with 174,378 people contributing.

Sanders Theatre was full Saturday morning, when Rudenstine delivered an hour-long address. He elicited more than the usual share of laughs from the audience as he detailed the University's previous financial problems.

One challenge of the campaign, he said, was "the perception that Harvard did not need any more money or resources than it already had." He said Harvard has faced this perception for over a century, but the demands of being on the leading edge of academics and research have constantly increased expenses.

He also spoke about how the campaign got Harvard affiliates more involved with the school.

A lot of people affiliated with the University "had not even been waved at for a very long time" before the campaign, he said. "Suddenly they were all lavished with decanal, provostial and presidential attention," he said.

Rudenstine is well known for his willingness to call potential contributors himself. He has expended an enormous amount of effort on the campaign since 1994. His fundraising abilities were a primary consideration in his selection as Harvard's president in 1991.

The University's other biggest fundraisers, Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 and Campaign Chair Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, were also in attendance.

"Bob Stone's shadow became an icon of the drive," Rudenstine joked in his speech. "People would see it coming in time to dive off their respective boulevards into nearby shrubbery."

The events of the day, organized by the Harvard Development Office, also included four hours of educational panels designed for the givers, and several catered meals. The use of Annenberg Hall for meals Friday night and Saturday afternoon closed the dining hall to first-years for a day. Annenberg's renovation was funded by the campaign.

At lunch held in Annenberg on Saturday, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles joked with the crowd that for once in the campaign, donors were getting a free meal without any ulterior motives of soliciting money. At the lunch, Knowles also defended the quality of education delivered to undergraduates, saying Harvard offers more small classes than many competing institutions.

In the panel discussions featuring some of the University's most prominent professors and alumni, the donors gathered to learn of new academic advances and discuss how the University should spend its accumulated funds.

Professors participating included Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein '61, Kennedy School of Government Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr., Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74, School of Public Health Dean Barry R. Bloom, and Harvard College Professor Michael J. Sandel.

They touched on topics including public education, information technology, distance learning, the changing role of the research university, scientific research, religion, the economy and the arts.

Presidential Panel

Another of Saturday's panels saw top administrators from several other universities come to Harvard to honor their peer school. Present in the panel moderated by Rudenstine were Yale Provost Alison F. Richard, University of California at Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl, University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger and Cornell President emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes.

All congratulated Rudenstine and the donors on the campaign's success, but Rhodes said the campaign was only now entering its hardest stage.

"The difficult phase of this campaign is going to be spending this huge amount of public confidence wisely," said Rhodes, a veteran of two capital campaigns.

Berdahl recalled Rudenstine setting the bar at a million dollars a day during the project's early stages.

In the future, he said, Harvard could be trying to raise $25 billion.

"Pity the president who will be raising $10 million a day," he said.

The group also discussed whether technology will eventually make "relics" of the great research universities.

While panelists were wary of any prediction that technology would end the residential undergraduate experience or create major reductions in professors, they agreed technology will change the campus experience significantly.

Richard noted that one benefit of distance learning technologies is a reexamination of learning and teaching methods in colleges, which have remained static and unchallenged for the last 30 or 40 years.

Panelists expressed no doubt that American universities lead the world's educational systems as the twenty-first century begins. Rhodes noted while only one or two of the world's best ten universities were in the United States in 1900, only one or two are not in the United States today.

A New Generation of Donors

In a panel moderated by University of Chicago President emeritus Hanna Holborn Gray, donors also discussed balancing their interests with Harvard's needs.

"You can't get money from some people unless their name is in lights 20 feet high," said Rita E. Hauser, a campaign co-chair, who participated in the panel.

Walter B. Hewlett '66, a director of the Hewlett-Packard Company and chair of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, noted that universities are largely under-funded.

In recent years, people have been able to give more, added Hewlett, who is also a Harvard Overseer.

The panelists also noted that in recent years, donors have asked for much more control over how their money is spent and demanded that it go to specific purposes rather than general university expenditures.

Hauser said universities needed to be more willing to turn down money when it is only offered for projects that the university does not want. She noted that a rising field of litigation is donors suing universities, claiming their money was not spent according to their wishes.

Finally, several panel members discussed the growth of young philanthropists who have made large amounts of money in technology. One such philanthropist, Gregory C. Carr, co-founder of Boston Technology Inc., was on the panel.

Carr established the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School last year, based on his concerns regarding right-wing extremism in his home state of Idaho.

The day concluded with a dinner at the Gordon Indoor Track, featuring brief speeches by Stone, Hauser, Rudenstine and Fineberg, as well as performances by a number of student groups, including the Harvard University Drumline, the Harvard University Jazz Band, the Kuumba Singers and the Veritones.