As word began to emerge that President Neil L. Rudenstine will resign next year, undergraduate leaders shrugged off the news--perhaps a testament to the understated role that the University president plays in the lives of College students.

"He's obviously been focused on the University as a whole, but undergraduates will probably feel his absence more when he's no longer in Massachusetts Hall," said Sterling P.A. Darling '01, a member of the Undergraduate Council.

As Harvard's President, Rudenstine has final say on Faculty appointments--and was responsible for the recent increase in the number of junior faculty positions--as well as, say some, a lack of women in the ranks of the senior faculty.

Rudenstine was the arbiter of Radcliffe's merger with the College, which earned him criticism from some campus progressives.

But his public pronouncements on diversity--and his vocal lobbying in favor of affirmative action--have won him praise.

Rudenstine worked, for example, to bolster the reputation and resources of Harvard's Department of Afro-American studies.

"He really has a heart for diversity in the College," said Undergraduate Council President Fentrice D. Driskell '01.

Most recently, Rudenstine has found himself embroiled in student and city protests over a living wage.