In September Grogan brokered a plan to pay the city of Boston $40 million in lieu of taxes. The deal ended a two-year stalemate that had stemmed from larger philosophical differences about the payments.

"The big breakthrough was the appointment of Paul Grogan," said Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 then. "He has personal experience and inclination. He knows City Hall."

In Cambridge, too, Grogan smoothed over nettlesome issues. He tried to explain away Harvard's seeming intransigence when city councillors called for a living wage. An initiative to provide $20 million in loans to create affordable housing in Cambridge and in Boston went a long way towards soothing hard feelings.

And when Harvard Pilgrim Health Care was threatened with financial ruin, Grogan offered the state attorney general a plan to keep the troubled HMO--and Harvard namesake--afloat.

Grogan regularly travels to Washington and New York to schmooze with reporters and enhance Harvard's reputation.

"It's about explaining ourselves and making our role visible," Grogan says.

Don't be surprised if Grogan is equally visible himself in the months to come.

Andre K. Stuckey

As a rule, crime doesn't pay--unless you're stealing from Harvard students who can never quite remember to lock their doors.

Andre K. Stuckey, the notorious "Yard Burglar," struck room after first-year room this fall and left fear in his wake. But even months into his wave of burglaries, many students still offered ready targets.

Stuckey's spree began in early October, when students in several Matthews Hall rooms awoke to find wallets and cash missing from their common rooms. The burglar's technique couldn't have been simpler--he entered rooms as students slept, ignoring more valuable booty like computers, cell phones and cameras.

First-years were upset by the security breach, a rude awakening only a month after they'd arrived at Harvard.

"I was sleeping right there when this happened," Gerby K. Marks '03 said at the time. "It creeps me out."