Provost Breaks Silence About Stepping Down

Breaking a month-long silence surrounding the reasons for his upcoming departure, Provost Jerry R. Green wrote a letter to the Crimson yesterday contradicting an earlier statement by President Neil L. Rudenstine.

The letter is reprinted on page two of today's Crimson.

The provost's letter said he has chosen not to speak with reporters about the reasons for his departure.

"I will be guided by the principle that any statements I may make should be consistent with the University's best interest," Green wrote.

But Rudenstine said at a press conference last Thursday that Green had not avoided speaking about his scheduled departure as provost.

"[Green] didn't refuse to say anything publicly," Rudenstine said Thursday. "He said quite a bit the day he left, and he and I issued a joint release, and I think it really covers the essential reasons."

Green, who delivered his letter in Person to The Crimson yesterday morning, wrote that he wished to correct any "erroneous impression" which might result from Rudenstine's statement being "taken out of context."

Rudenstine told reporters on Thursday that Green had reiterated the reasons for his departure to reporters since their joint announcement on April 13.

"I think he's been quite reluctant, quite understandably since then," Rudenstine said Thursday. "As people have called him, he's said again what he said before, but recently I think he's felt he's said it."

But although Rudenstine says Green has explained the departure, the provost's letter says he has made no statement to the press giving a reason for departure.

Rudenstine's comments on Thursday echoed the original press release, which said only that Green would step down to assume the new John Leverett Professorship.

"The main reason is that he's been offered one of the new chairs that has been created in this campaign precisely for the kind of programs that I mentioned to you before," Rudenstine said Thursday. "It's new chair that focuses on interdisciplinary and interfaculty programs.

But Green's letter says he chose not to say anything publicly on the day of the press release, "as the Crim- son knows first hand." Since then, Green hasspoken only to The Chronicle of Higher Education,saying it was "not a bad time" to leave hisposition as provost because planning was completefor the recently launched University capitalcampaign.

Rudenstine and Harvard Overseer Charlotte P.Armstrong '49 have both said Green's departurefalls between the planning and initiation stagesof the campaign.

"It is the part of the campaign planning andthe activation of our goals that he was mostdirectly involved in," Rudenstine said Thursday.

Rudenstine did not return phone calls regardingGreen's "corrections.

Rudenstine and Harvard Overseer Charlotte P.Armstrong '49 have both said Green's departurefalls between the planning and initiation stagesof the campaign.

"It is the part of the campaign planning andthe activation of our goals that he was mostdirectly involved in," Rudenstine said Thursday.

Rudenstine did not return phone calls regardingGreen's "corrections.