While they say that none of the major deans make sense—some too old, some too involved, some too conten—faculty and administrators thought that the next provost could well come from the ranks of department chairs, program directors and academic deans. In addition, administrators and faculty say Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson would make a good candidate. Despite being a contender in former President Neil L. Rudenstine’s search for his first provost, he now says he has no interest in the post.

The Provost’s Task

Long time faculty and former provosts agree that picking someone with the right personal chemistry is one of the most important tasks facing Summers in this search.

Former provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67 describes how at the end of the day, Rudenstine would often stop by to chat informally, outside of their myriad formal meetings.

But beyond picking the right person—a skill for which the former Treasury Secretary is well known—Summers also has the luxury of being able to define the provost’s role as he sees fit.

While at other schools the provost role is fairly well defined and static, this is not the case at Harvard.

Until Rudenstine arrived there had been no provost at Harvard for over 40 years. At other, far more centralized universities, the provost position had developed into a chief operating officer with budgetary control over the faculties—a “Mr. Inside” to the outwardly focused presidents.

Given Harvard’s decentralized structure—deans control their own budgets, do their own planning and jealously guard their empires—the role of the provost at the University was unclear when Rudenstine first raised the idea of resurrecting the post.