TEN-YEAR PLAN

Failing to plan is planning to fail, the adage goes. President Neil L. Rudenstine is determined not to fail.

Harvard's new president launched an ambitious University-wide planning process this year to decide the school's priorities in preparation for a fund drive that will shatter world records.

Call it the Ten Year Plan. Or call it a Blueprint for the Future. Call it whatever you want, but this 356-year-old university has never seen anything like it before.

The basic idea is that Harvard's 10 faculties decide their goals and needs for the future and than work together to fuse them into a workable, University-wide plan for a fundraising campaign.

"It sounds just like `a planning process,'" Rudenstine says. But it's more than that, and he knows it.

In his first year in office, Rudenstine has devised a masterly scheme designed "to bring the institution to gether... to get everybody in the habit of thinking of everyone else's problems."

He wants his top lieutenants--from the dean of the Business School to the dean of the Divinity School--to join him in "thinking about how to organize and run the institution in a more interwoven and collaborative way... on the issues where it makes sense."

Easier said then done. It's Rudenstive versus a sprawling university with a long tradition of decentralized "home rule" for its 10 faculties.

"If it works, it will in the long run make a very big difference," Rudenstine says.

So far, it seems to be working Although the process is still in the early stages, several deans say it has helped them clarify priorities for the upcoming $2 billion-plus capital campaign.

Perhaps more importantly, they say, Rudenstine's plan for planning is already bringing the various parts of the University closer together.

Common sense dictates that when you put 10 deans and a potential $2.5 billion together in the same room, it's bound to get rather ugly.

Deans, department chairs and professors often harbor an exaggerated conception of their "needs," and even the tweediest academics can succumb to the human emotion of greed.

But Harvard administrators maintain that the planning process has not been marked by infighting. At least, not yet.

Rudenstine does not sense a great amount of internal strife. Still, he acknowledges that there will be some friction.

"Anytime you have lots of people with strong ideas competing for resources...there are always going to be some tensions and some choosing," he says.

Harvey V. Fineberg '67, dean of the School of Public Health, says the schools will earn their money by fundraising, not fighting.

"No one, I think, is sitting around thinking that from the heavens is going to fall two or one billion dollars and all you have to do is scrap for it," Fineberg says.

Harvard's smaller schools, which traditionally rely on smaller and less wealthy alumni bases, will be looking for help, Rudenstine hopes the new Universitywideplanning approach will yield opportunities forcollaboration between the poorer and richerschools.

"At least form the vantage point of thisoffice, more help from central administrationwould be greatly appreciated," says Peter G. Rowe,the dean-designate of the Graduate School ofDesign.

Acting Dean of the Graduate School of EducationCatherine E. Snow says the school is in dire needof more funds.

"The School of Education has less than one halfof the endowment dollars per student of the nextlowest graduate school," she says. "It's anembarrassment to the University that students areallowed to be impoverished here as well as whenthey enter society."

But surprisingly, the deans say the planningprocess has fostered more unity than infightingthus far.

Under Rudenstine's plan, the deans sit on eachother's review committees. They see opportunitiesfor academic collaboration between faculties andthey learn that other schools have needs, too. AndProvost-designate Jerry R. Green to the mix, andthere's another voice for University-widecooperation.

Vice President for Alumni Affairs andDevelopment Fred L. Glimp '50 worked with bothformer presidents Nathan M. Pusey '28 and Derek C.Bok. And he, along with other senioradministration officials, says Rudenstine's planis something new.

"Harvard has, to my knowledge, never had anacademic planning process in which we've had thiskind of team unity... That's new, believe it ornot," Glimp says.

Dean of the Kennedy School of Government AlbertM. Carnesale agrees: "This, to the best of myknowledge, is unheard of at Harvard."

Here's how Rudenstine wants the process towork. First, the deans of Harvard's 10 facultiesand the president of Radcliffe independently setacademic priorities for their schools. They maymodify existing strategic plans, or start newdiscussions with their faculty and administrators.

Next, each dean presents the plan in a two-hourreview meeting chaired by Rudenstine. The provostand other related administrators attend thesemeetings, as well as about three deans from otherHarvard faculties.

For example, Radcliffe President Linda S.Wilson and the deans of the Business School,School of Public Health and School of Educationsit on the planning review committee for theKennedy School of Government.

The academic plans are then modified andbrought back to the same panel. At this secondmeeting, the dean presents as assessment of thelong term financial implications of the academicplan.

After another round of changes, the plan goesto a third review meeting and the committeediscusses fundraising needs.

Most of the faculties have already had two tofour of the review meetings.

Next week, all 10 deans and the five vicepresidents will assemble for a two-day retreat onthe wooded campus of the Academy of Arts andSciences in Cambridge.

There, each dean will present a plan to theentire group. Like the review meetings, writtenmaterial will be distributed beforehand andRudenstine chairs an active discussion.

"These meetings are friendly and constructive,but they can get quite lively--I won't say heated,but they can be more than just pleasant to-ing andfro-ing. Because the fundamental idea is to getgood criticism from colleagues outside one's ownschool. That's tremendously important," saysRudenstine.

After another six months and two more retreats,Rudenstine hopes he will hold in his hands aUniversity-wide plan that serves as theintellectual foundation and price guide for acapital campaign.

That's the structure. But beneath the meetingsis a series of tough reality checks. Each academicplan must be subjected to "fundraising feasibilitytests."

"Some academic plans you dream up couldbankrupt you financially," says Glimp.

In fact, many of the changes in the academicplans will be the result of financial concerns.Most professors' dreams will end up on the cuttingroom floor.

One senior faculty members says wish lists inthe sciences were initially completely out of tunewith financial reality. Only about a third of thewish lists were considered feasible, the professorsays.

But the professor praises the collaborative wayfaculty members were consulted about which wisheswere most important.

There is no voting at the review meetings;Rudenstine calls the process "interactive."

"Things will either survive that process ornot," Rudenstine says.

Rudenstine attacks the academic plans withthree main questions in mind.

"Is this an area where we think we are doing asmuch as we should already?"

"Where are the greatest needs?"

"Where is the University's comparativeadvantage [in relation to other institutions]?"

The pattern of review meetings and the basicquestions are the same in each school, but theprocess moves more quickly in some places than inothers.

"One key issue in this is how long have thedifferent deans been in place," says Fineberg.

At the Graduate School of Education, where anew dean will take office July 1, the planning isvery tentative.

On the other hand, the Law School, which is inthe midst of its own capital campaign, and theMedical School, which recently concluded a funddrive, are more secure in their plans. TheBusiness School, too, is "booming along," saysFineberg.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences JeremyR. Knowles asked for a delay in presenting hisfaculty's academic plan because of the "giganticamount of work." When Knowles finally presentedthe plan in May, it took eight and a half hours.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the largestfaculty at Harvard, plans to improve theundergraduate experience by increasing studentinteraction with faculty members and relying lesson graduate students as teaching fellows.

"We must not have graduate students teaching somuch," Knowles says, explaining that graduatestudents can get their degrees quicker if theyteach less.

Knowles also says he hopes to increase the sizeof the faculty. He said the numbers of professorsstayed constant during the past 20 year, while thenumbers of students increased 10 percent.

Most of Harvard's faculties already had someplans in place before Rudenstine kicked off theUniversity-wide effort.

The School of Public Health, for example,already had a strategic planning subcommittee inplace. Fineberg says the academic priorities hetalks about now are the same ones he talked aboutlast year.

Confronting major diseases like AIDS, cancerand heart disease and studying health care,environmental health, behavior, nutrition andlifestyle remain on the school's agenda. A finalpriority for the school, where one third ofstudents are from outside the U.S., is worldhealth--studying the mix of infection,overpopulation, malnutrition and poverty thataffects health in the developing world.

The Kennedy School, on the other hand, had morework to do before presenting its academic plan. Ithad a long range strategy committee last year, butthings were up in the air after the surpriseresignation of former Dean Robert D. Putnam.

This year, the new dean, Carnesale, held twofaculty meetings to discuss where the schoolshould be going. He also talked to faculty membersindividually, and considered an Overseers visitingcommittee report.

His top priority is "to enhance the scholarlyreputation of the Kennedy School of Government."Part of that task involves renewing the faculty,with a view toward replacing the school's originalprofessors as they retire.

Carnesale also hopes to use the Kennedy Schoolas a "hub" for the rest of the University, and totake advantage of the "opportunity to bring tobear the resources of Harvard University on publicpolicy problems."

The third part of the Kennedy School's academicplan involves strengthening areas that areimportant in the public policy arena but that arenot traditional strengths of the schools.Carnesale mentions health policy and educationpolicy as examples.

One week from today, Harvard's president,deans, vice presidents and a few otheradministrators will hole up at the Academy of Artsand Sciences. Two two-day retreat, where all theplans will be presented, could be a showcase ofteam unity.

The idea, Rudenstine says, is to get an"overarching view of the emerging total plan."

Some themes in that total plan have alreadyemerged. They will become important opportunitiesfor inter-faculty collaboration as well as forbuilding the case for the upcoming fund drive.

Some such themes are academic, like theenvironment and education policy. Other are morestudent-oriented: Financial aid is a growing needin almost every school.

The intensive planning will continue for aboutanother six months. Rudenstine's leadership teamwill assemble again for retreats in September andDecember to fine tune the plans and tie themtogether. And slowly, the academic plans will, inKnowles' words, "transmute" into a campaign plan.

There is already motion on the fundraisingfront. Glimp has received "a few" multi-milliondollar pledges, and Rudenstine has been travellingthe country building goodwill with alumni. Nextyear, Harvard's crack fundraisers will be workingto line up commitments for a campaign that mostexpect will be the largest ever in the history ofhigher education.

When Rudenstine calls a press conference toannounce the campaign sometime in the next twoyears, at least one thing is certain. He willrefer frequently to the planning process, and tothe careful thought that went into determiningHarvard's priorities and needs for the future.

If Rudenstine's plan for planning succeeds, thebenefits will be greater than the two or threebillion dollars spent on shiny labs or tucked intothe tucked into the endowment. His new plan couldbring the University's parts closer together and,in so doing, redefine both the institution and itsmission.

Gady A. Epstein, Joe Mathews, Wendy A. Gribband Ivan Oransky contributed to the reporting ofthis story.Crimson File PhotoDean of the Faculty JEREMY R. KNOWLES

"At least form the vantage point of thisoffice, more help from central administrationwould be greatly appreciated," says Peter G. Rowe,the dean-designate of the Graduate School ofDesign.

Acting Dean of the Graduate School of EducationCatherine E. Snow says the school is in dire needof more funds.

"The School of Education has less than one halfof the endowment dollars per student of the nextlowest graduate school," she says. "It's anembarrassment to the University that students areallowed to be impoverished here as well as whenthey enter society."

But surprisingly, the deans say the planningprocess has fostered more unity than infightingthus far.

Under Rudenstine's plan, the deans sit on eachother's review committees. They see opportunitiesfor academic collaboration between faculties andthey learn that other schools have needs, too. AndProvost-designate Jerry R. Green to the mix, andthere's another voice for University-widecooperation.

Vice President for Alumni Affairs andDevelopment Fred L. Glimp '50 worked with bothformer presidents Nathan M. Pusey '28 and Derek C.Bok. And he, along with other senioradministration officials, says Rudenstine's planis something new.

"Harvard has, to my knowledge, never had anacademic planning process in which we've had thiskind of team unity... That's new, believe it ornot," Glimp says.

Dean of the Kennedy School of Government AlbertM. Carnesale agrees: "This, to the best of myknowledge, is unheard of at Harvard."

Here's how Rudenstine wants the process towork. First, the deans of Harvard's 10 facultiesand the president of Radcliffe independently setacademic priorities for their schools. They maymodify existing strategic plans, or start newdiscussions with their faculty and administrators.

Next, each dean presents the plan in a two-hourreview meeting chaired by Rudenstine. The provostand other related administrators attend thesemeetings, as well as about three deans from otherHarvard faculties.

For example, Radcliffe President Linda S.Wilson and the deans of the Business School,School of Public Health and School of Educationsit on the planning review committee for theKennedy School of Government.

The academic plans are then modified andbrought back to the same panel. At this secondmeeting, the dean presents as assessment of thelong term financial implications of the academicplan.

After another round of changes, the plan goesto a third review meeting and the committeediscusses fundraising needs.

Most of the faculties have already had two tofour of the review meetings.

Next week, all 10 deans and the five vicepresidents will assemble for a two-day retreat onthe wooded campus of the Academy of Arts andSciences in Cambridge.

There, each dean will present a plan to theentire group. Like the review meetings, writtenmaterial will be distributed beforehand andRudenstine chairs an active discussion.

"These meetings are friendly and constructive,but they can get quite lively--I won't say heated,but they can be more than just pleasant to-ing andfro-ing. Because the fundamental idea is to getgood criticism from colleagues outside one's ownschool. That's tremendously important," saysRudenstine.

After another six months and two more retreats,Rudenstine hopes he will hold in his hands aUniversity-wide plan that serves as theintellectual foundation and price guide for acapital campaign.

That's the structure. But beneath the meetingsis a series of tough reality checks. Each academicplan must be subjected to "fundraising feasibilitytests."

"Some academic plans you dream up couldbankrupt you financially," says Glimp.

In fact, many of the changes in the academicplans will be the result of financial concerns.Most professors' dreams will end up on the cuttingroom floor.

One senior faculty members says wish lists inthe sciences were initially completely out of tunewith financial reality. Only about a third of thewish lists were considered feasible, the professorsays.

But the professor praises the collaborative wayfaculty members were consulted about which wisheswere most important.

There is no voting at the review meetings;Rudenstine calls the process "interactive."

"Things will either survive that process ornot," Rudenstine says.

Rudenstine attacks the academic plans withthree main questions in mind.

"Is this an area where we think we are doing asmuch as we should already?"

"Where are the greatest needs?"

"Where is the University's comparativeadvantage [in relation to other institutions]?"

The pattern of review meetings and the basicquestions are the same in each school, but theprocess moves more quickly in some places than inothers.

"One key issue in this is how long have thedifferent deans been in place," says Fineberg.

At the Graduate School of Education, where anew dean will take office July 1, the planning isvery tentative.

On the other hand, the Law School, which is inthe midst of its own capital campaign, and theMedical School, which recently concluded a funddrive, are more secure in their plans. TheBusiness School, too, is "booming along," saysFineberg.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences JeremyR. Knowles asked for a delay in presenting hisfaculty's academic plan because of the "giganticamount of work." When Knowles finally presentedthe plan in May, it took eight and a half hours.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the largestfaculty at Harvard, plans to improve theundergraduate experience by increasing studentinteraction with faculty members and relying lesson graduate students as teaching fellows.

"We must not have graduate students teaching somuch," Knowles says, explaining that graduatestudents can get their degrees quicker if theyteach less.

Knowles also says he hopes to increase the sizeof the faculty. He said the numbers of professorsstayed constant during the past 20 year, while thenumbers of students increased 10 percent.

Most of Harvard's faculties already had someplans in place before Rudenstine kicked off theUniversity-wide effort.

The School of Public Health, for example,already had a strategic planning subcommittee inplace. Fineberg says the academic priorities hetalks about now are the same ones he talked aboutlast year.

Confronting major diseases like AIDS, cancerand heart disease and studying health care,environmental health, behavior, nutrition andlifestyle remain on the school's agenda. A finalpriority for the school, where one third ofstudents are from outside the U.S., is worldhealth--studying the mix of infection,overpopulation, malnutrition and poverty thataffects health in the developing world.

The Kennedy School, on the other hand, had morework to do before presenting its academic plan. Ithad a long range strategy committee last year, butthings were up in the air after the surpriseresignation of former Dean Robert D. Putnam.

This year, the new dean, Carnesale, held twofaculty meetings to discuss where the schoolshould be going. He also talked to faculty membersindividually, and considered an Overseers visitingcommittee report.

His top priority is "to enhance the scholarlyreputation of the Kennedy School of Government."Part of that task involves renewing the faculty,with a view toward replacing the school's originalprofessors as they retire.

Carnesale also hopes to use the Kennedy Schoolas a "hub" for the rest of the University, and totake advantage of the "opportunity to bring tobear the resources of Harvard University on publicpolicy problems."

The third part of the Kennedy School's academicplan involves strengthening areas that areimportant in the public policy arena but that arenot traditional strengths of the schools.Carnesale mentions health policy and educationpolicy as examples.

One week from today, Harvard's president,deans, vice presidents and a few otheradministrators will hole up at the Academy of Artsand Sciences. Two two-day retreat, where all theplans will be presented, could be a showcase ofteam unity.

The idea, Rudenstine says, is to get an"overarching view of the emerging total plan."

Some themes in that total plan have alreadyemerged. They will become important opportunitiesfor inter-faculty collaboration as well as forbuilding the case for the upcoming fund drive.

Some such themes are academic, like theenvironment and education policy. Other are morestudent-oriented: Financial aid is a growing needin almost every school.

The intensive planning will continue for aboutanother six months. Rudenstine's leadership teamwill assemble again for retreats in September andDecember to fine tune the plans and tie themtogether. And slowly, the academic plans will, inKnowles' words, "transmute" into a campaign plan.

There is already motion on the fundraisingfront. Glimp has received "a few" multi-milliondollar pledges, and Rudenstine has been travellingthe country building goodwill with alumni. Nextyear, Harvard's crack fundraisers will be workingto line up commitments for a campaign that mostexpect will be the largest ever in the history ofhigher education.

When Rudenstine calls a press conference toannounce the campaign sometime in the next twoyears, at least one thing is certain. He willrefer frequently to the planning process, and tothe careful thought that went into determiningHarvard's priorities and needs for the future.

If Rudenstine's plan for planning succeeds, thebenefits will be greater than the two or threebillion dollars spent on shiny labs or tucked intothe tucked into the endowment. His new plan couldbring the University's parts closer together and,in so doing, redefine both the institution and itsmission.

Gady A. Epstein, Joe Mathews, Wendy A. Gribband Ivan Oransky contributed to the reporting ofthis story.Crimson File PhotoDean of the Faculty JEREMY R. KNOWLES