After the smoke clears from Harvard's presidential search, undergraduates may find that they have reason to be optimistic about the agenda of the University's 27th president.

The search committee's meetings were conducted entirely in secret, and there is clearly a great deal students still do not know about Lawrence H. Summers' plans for Harvard.

But there have been signs all along that Summers' presidency may be more oriented toward undergraduates than that of his predecessor, current president Neil L. Rudenstine.

To some extent, Summers' course has already been set for him by Rudenstine, who raked in $2.6 billion in a massive capital campaign. Summers, then, can devote less attention to padding the University's coffers and more to other matters.

Rudenstine was not focused enough on the College for some people's taste. According to Quincy House Master Michael Shinagel, who met with the search committee last fall, Rudenstine's fundraising neglected important College issues, like residential overcrowding.

Whether Summers will prioritize the space concerns articulated by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 in his recent Report on the College remains to be seen. Unlike Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67, a top candidate into the final days of the search, Summers never lived in Harvard's Houses as an undergraduate--he went to MIT.

But in the realm of undergraduate education, there is a strong feeling that Summers--who became the University's youngest-ever tenured professor in 1983--will be a champion of students' academic interests.

Reaction in the College to Summers' appointment has focused on Summers' reputation as a professor.