And Rudenstine, in retrospect, readily admits his mistake.

“I think that was not something I did well, and it upset a lot of people, made them wary,” Rudenstine told The Crimson last May.

But Thompson points out that the Allston land purchase exemplifies Rudenstine’s vision for Harvard’s future.

“In the long view of Harvard’s history, it will be seen as the single most important accomplishment of this presidency—on the order of creating the House system, and adding professional schools,” he explains.

Nevertheless, Rudenstine had to spend time mending fences. In the later years of his tenure, he succeeded in improving the situation in Boston, if not in Cambridge.

According to Stone, Rudenstine’s academic credentials—he had been provost and dean of students at Princeton—also increased his appeal for the search committee of 1991.

Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson, who also worked with Rudenstine at Princeton, says that he was impressed to see what he describes as “one of [Rudenstine’s] most striking qualities” carry over from the much smaller world of Princeton to the mammoth Harvard.

For Rudenstine, the adjustment wasn’t easy. Princeton was a small environment, heavily focused on undergraduates and without many graduate students. Harvard, with its nine graduate schools, was more complicated.

Former Princeton dean of students Rudenstine was widely criticized as removed from the student body.

“I think what we need is a president of Harvard College,” Gomes says.

“At Princeton I could actually set priorities. I could actually be directly engaged in college affairs, say what I thought and have a chance of moving things forward,” Rudenstine reflects.

Although Rudenstine taught at Harvard as a graduate student, in many ways, he was the proverbial new kid on the block. “He had been provost there, and becoming President here took some adjustment because you have to delegate much more here,” Thompson says.

With many administrative vacancies to fill—the Deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy School of Government, the Graduate School of Education and the Vice President and General Counsel all stepped down at the end of Bok’s tenure—Rudenstine was quickly overwhelmed.