From his basement office in Mass. Hall, O’Mary served as a fact-finder, helping gather information used in various administrative decisions and in briefing the president before his public appearances.

“He took what I gave him and added it to his base of knowledge,” O’Mary says. “I would often pick up the phone and call Harvard professors—they were able to point me in the right direction. They know more than anyone else on the planet about their area of expertise.”

But Summers is never quick to accept an argument without analysis, according to O’Mary.

“I always found it absolutely fascinating to hear him work through issues,” recalls O’Mary, who is now working for Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s presidential campaign and plans to attend Boston College Law School next year. “He would lay out arguments and the opposite side just so he understood the opposite side. He always felt if he did not understand the opposite view, he did not want to make a decision about that argument.”

For O’Mary’s replacement Christopher C. Kim ’99, a former high school social studies teacher and director of Harvard’s Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP), the advisory role is nothing new.

According to new UTEP Director Orin Gutlerner, Kim’s primary role involved recruiting students for the program, which provides teaching certification for undergraduates, and advising them on how to apply for teaching positions.

Kim says he’s looking forward to learning more about the inner workings of the University in his new position.

“The job offers an opportunity to have a neat perspective on all the different things that Harvard does,” he says. “That’s why I took the job.”

Hail to the Chief of Staff

Of course, it’s not easy to turn down a job offer from the University’s top administrator.

When Summers tapped her to fill the chief of staff post, Marne Levine deferred her Harvard Business School (HBS) admission for a year—but liked the job so much that she remained for two.

Levine met Summers when she was working at the Office of Legislative Affairs in Washington, D.C. and he was working in the Treasury department.

Now, as a first-year student at HBS, Levine recalls the daily challenge of prioritizing issues Summers faced.

“There’s so many things that are important to get to, and trying to figure out the priority order of those things is challenging. [Summers] wants to do everything, but it’s hard because there are only so many hours,” she says.

The chief of staff must follow-up on all of the issues that arise in the president’s office, from conversations with deans to student questions during Summers’ monthly office hours, according to Levine.