Walking through the Yard one day, Lee saw the bubble gum-colored chairs seating full capacity. The sight of students interacting in a shared space—the type of casual observation one makes in passing—has convinced him of the need for gathering spaces on campus.

As a recent lecturer at the Law School, Lee witnessed first hand how former Dean Elena Kagan improved student life by renovating Harkness Commons to make it more amenable to students.

“The Harkness renovation had as much to do with the morale of the students and the collegiality of the community as anything,” Lee says. “It gave the folks a nice space to gather, and I think Harvard could use a space like that that isn’t limited to the Law School—that there be some common space where the university could come together on some basis.”

Another of Lee’s stated goals is improved communication.

At WilmerHale, Lee expanded the audience for his “state of the firm address” from including only partners to every layer of the firm’s employment. Likewise, Houghton raises the possibility of an annual letter to the community from the Corporation as a potential recommendation stemming from the governance review.

“It seems to me that once a year the Senior Fellow probably should make some kind of a report to the University in general about what the Corporation has been focusing on,” Houghton says.

At WilmerHale, Lee says he saw no reason not to include the community in his speech. This tendency toward openness and transparency, if applied to the Corporation, could lead to a shift in relations between the body and the larger Harvard community.

The Corporation has garnered a reputation as a shadowy guardian of the University and its finances, but in reality, members say, it serves most frequently as a sounding board for the President and her initiatives in addition to its decision making power.

“There was a time when there was almost a collective presidency because the Corporation was so accessible to the President,” Reischauer says. “The idea that we could or should play that kind of role today is both fanciful and undesirable.”

Though the governance review is still underway with conclusions as of yet unknown, Business School professor and governance expert Jay W. Lorsch points out the remarkable longevity of Harvard’s governance structure thus far.

“It is a tribute to the strength of the original design that the Corporation has been able to do what it has done for the last 300 years,” Lorsch says. “Clearly there may be some need for change, but that’s something for the Corporation to think through.”

But this moment in the Corporation’s history—when a long-time leader is about to depart and a fresh face is set to join its ranks as the University contemplates its direction going forward—may be a turning point.

“I’m now old enough that I’ve seen four major economic downturns and every time there is an economic tsunami, the vision and strategic plan of an institution always gets questioned and the people who are leading the institution get questioned,” Lee says. “That’s healthy and part of what institutions are.”

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.