"For someone like Provost Fineberg who was a dean and was accustomed to having the buck stop with him, that's tough," the person says.

Rudenstine says that because Harvard is less centralized than other universities, the provost necessarily has less responsibility--as does the rest of the central administration.

At other schools, he says, the provost might have jurisdiction over university funds, while at Harvard, most money matters are left up to individual deans.

Because of this decentralization, one of the provost's main responsibilities is to do "most of the thinking about the bridging together of the institution," Rudenstine says. This coordination between all deans is a project on which Rudenstine himself has put tremendous emphasis.

It's no surprise, then, that Rudenstine's cushy corner office in Mass. Hall adjoins Fineberg's, connecting the two in an architectural layout that the provost calls "symbolic."

Neil Rudenstine's taller shadow, Fineberg is even-keeled and unflappable where his boss is disarmingly guileless. Fineberg is nothing if not deliberate. One colleague dubs this physician's demeanor "bedside manner." To most central administrators, his controlled manner is admirable.

But for some University officials, that manner, along with the loosely defined position of provost, renders him something of an enigma.