President Outlines Goals for New Year

Lobbying for financial aid and basic research funding in Washington, upholding the University's academic mission and continuing faculty recruitment are top priorities for President Neil L. Rudenstine, he said in an interview on August 9.

Rudenstine said he was pleased with the results of Harvard's lobbying of Congress over the past few months.

"I think the progress we've made has been the product of steady, patient, reasonable explanation," Rudenstine said in the interview. "I think what's happened is they have come to realize to what extent the prosperity of the country, the economy, the ability to create jobs and so on, does in fact relate to research."

Indeed, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill which maintained a large share of the funding for scientific research, particularly for the National Institutes of Health.

But in the same bill, the House reduced the number of Pell grants, which are need-based student aid awards.

Many educational leaders, including Rudenstine, have been working in Washington to convince Congress of the importance of the significance of continued student aid.

"It doesn't have as direct a payoff [as research funding]. That's the problem," he said.

Upholding the academic integrity of the University, especially on the international level, will also be a top priority in the coming year, Rudenstine said.

"We have a lot of programs in motion, and we want to make sure they get developed in the right way," he said. "We're already a highly international institution, but for the next round of America's higher education history, we're just going to have to keep making a lot of progress."

Rudenstine said he will speak at an international arts and sciences conference early this fall.

In addition to regular turnover of faculty, Rudenstine said he will work to fill new faculty positions that have been created by the University's ongoing $2.1 billion capital campaign.

"We happen to be in the fortunate position of having a number of openings [and] of creating a number of new positions because of the campaign money," the president said.

"Part of the agenda is to take full advantage of that and keep getting the very best talent," he said.

New Dean

Rudenstine said he is pleased with the progress of the search for a new dean for the Business School.

He said he expects the position to be filled this fall.

"I'm quite happy and I think the faculty and staff working in the process are quite happy as well," Rudenstine said.

He confirmed that there is a small group of candidates under consideration in the search.

Rudenstine has been searching for a successor to retiring Business School Dean John H. McArthur for about five months.