The campaign did fall short in one key area: endowed professorships. Over the course of six years, Rudenstine raised $2.6 billion—but fulfilled 28 of 40 promised endowed chairs. He vowed to continue fundraising until the chairs were funded, but he leaves with the promise unfulfilled. Less than two weeks after the search committee announced that Summers would be Harvard’s next president, the Boston Globe reported that Summers planned to increase the size of the faculty by an additional 200 members.

Rudenstine also had successes with undergraduate education: While decisions to boost financial aid rested with Knowles in the end, Rudenstine ensured that they remained on the agenda. His tenure has seen two successive financial aid increases for undergraduates—$2,000 each time.

“Rudenstine has been a key player not just in raising the money needed for undergraduate financial aid, but in pressing the importance of this institutional priority at the same time as other needs are also considered urgent,” says Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

Capital Campaign money went toward boosting undergraduate aid and recruiting new faculty—Rudenstine was the architect for projects that affected undergraduates in ways they sometimes didn’t perceive. The University’s increasing national profile enabled Rudenstine to attract some of the nation’s top names to the Faculty—especially to the Afro-American studies department.

During Rudenstine’s tenure, Afro-American studies at Harvard went from a struggling program with one tenured professor and one concentrator to the nation’s top department, boasting a host of respected scholars popularly dubbed the “dream team,” and a comfortable $39 million endowment.

“No one has walked the walk more boldly in terms of diversity and affirmative action and Afro-American studies than Neil Rudenstine,” Gates says.