But with the first opportunity to modify Rudenstine’s conception of the provost position, observers say Summers has an unprecedented opportunity.

“Rudenstine was always just thinking, ‘who is the next person I can get,’” Jorgenson says.

Yet this may also be Summers’ last opportunity to significantly modify the role of the provost’s role.

“The only time Summers can make these changes though would be at the beginning of his presidency,” Carnesale says.

Faculty say Summers’ challenge in defining the role of the next provost is deciding which of the big issues—the expansion in Allston, undergraduate education, science—he wants the provost to be involved in, deciding how that involvement will work and equipping the provost with the resources commensurate with the task.

For many long time observers, the development of University land in Allston is the type of issue ideally suited for the provost’s involvement. Plans are to develop the land for academic use, with the ultimate goal, administrators have said, of moving some of the faculties across the river to free up space. The work will take coordination between the various deans and faculties, some of which are reluctant to move.

“It’s going to take strong central leadership,” Jorgenson says. “Moving the Cambridge part of Harvard into the surrounding territories generates the same type of tension as [University] integration has. These are coordination issues—it’s a great opportunity to develop a role for the provost in working out the internal details, while leaving the external, political matters to the president,” he says.