THC: Can the next president avoid a Capital Campaign, or has fundraising become too crucial to higher education? Can fundraising be a lesser part of his or her job?

NLR: I think so, although quite honestly, in spite of the fact that it's obviously occupied a lot of my time, I've tried hard to make sure the academic part of the enterprise was about half of my job--even at the height of the campaign. Otherwise one might feel disconnected...So if fundraising is 30 to 35, 20 to 25 percent of the job...it should not get up into an area where it's taking up most of your time...That would be a terrible mistake. I don't think there's a necessity for another capital campaign [soon]. That has to do with the rhythm of the institution...

THC: What are your regrets? What in the past 10 years would you have handled differently?

NLR: If I had been more sensitive to the complexities and issues, I would have found a way to handle the announcement about the purchase of the land in Allston [revealed in 1997]. I think that was not something I did well, and I think it upset a lot of people, made them wary...Most of the land had been purchased already by the time I came, but how to make it public and explain--it was something that should have taken a lot more time, and I simply misjudged that...

THC: We've heard you're interested in returning to Princeton. Is that true?

NLR: ...We'll take a fair amount of time to think that one through...It's sort of hard for us to imagine not being close to a major university, and the two we know best and love are Harvard and Princeton.