Rudenstine Timeline

1991
March 21: Neil L. Rudenstine appointed the 26th president of Harvard University. Faculty enthusiastic: hes an academic. Overseers excited: hes a master fundraiser. Students spell out We love Rudy in pizza boxes.

June: Jeremy R. Knowles named Dean of the Faculty.

June: In order to increase the power of the central administration, Rudenstine creates the position of provost, a central administrative authority just below the president, and names Jerry R. Green to the post.

1992
December 8: Rudenstines focus on interfaculty development manifests itself through the creation of the Environmental Science and Public Policy concentration.

1993
April: Protests arise over the choice of Colin L. Powell as commencement speaker because of his stance on gays in the military.

1994
April 8: Green resigns as provost. He said he was frustrated by Rudenstines lack of support in creating a University-wide science policy, establishing a retirement policy for professors and enhancing fundraising for the central administration. Rudenstine appoints Kennedy School Dean Albert Carnesale the new provost.

May 12: The $2.1 billion capital campaign kicks off with the ultimate goal to bring Harvard into the next century. Funds are to be used for physical renovations, technological upgrades, and teaching.

November 28: Rudenstine, suffering from severe fatigue, requests a medical leave of absence.I see in retrospect that I still thought I was 35 years old and could go three or four years without a vacation, Rudenstine said in 1996. Ive realized Im no longer 35 years old. The absence is closely covered by the national media and is featured on the cover of Newsweek. He returns 3 months later.

1996
January 3: Rudenstine opposes the construction of a war memorial to Harvards Confederate war dead whose names are omitted from the walls of Memorial Hall. The Board of Overseers eventually kills the proposal.

February 5: Rudenstine releases his second annual report on Diversity and Learning. The report emphasized how education is enhanced through the interaction of diverse individuals.
1997
January 17: The University reaches an agreement with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. After five years of poor relations, the union wins renewal of full-time benefits for part-time workers.

April 30: Fifteen female professors challenge Rudenstines decision not to offer tenure to Associate Professor of Government Bonnie Honig.

July: Harvey V. Fineberg 67 takes office as University provost. Fineberg, the former dean of the School of Public Health, quickly becomes Rudenstines closest colleague, helping coordinate major University-wide initiatives like Project ADAPT, a huge technology system.

October 31: Chinese President Jiang Zemin addresses Harvard students and the nation from a lectern in Sanders Theatre. Thousands of protesters and Jiang supporters crowd the streets outside the hall.

1998
March: Rudenstine becomes the first Harvard president to visit mainland China, with an 11-day sweep through Beijing and Hong Kong along with Taipei. He returns to East Asia during the summer to visit Japan and Korea. The trips are intended to build educational ties and fundraising efforts in Asia.

1999
January: Students begin protests for the adoption of a living wage for Harvard employees.

April 20: Rudenstine and leaders of Radcliffe College announce that the womens institution will merge into Harvard and become the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The deal culminates more than two years of intense, sometimes bitter negotiations. Officials on both sides say Rudenstine was the driving force in working towards an agreement.

October: At the Harvard Club of New York, Rudenstine reveals that the University has met its fundraising goals for the Capital Campaign of $2.1 billion. The amount is the largest any university had ever sought to raise.December: The Capital Campaign reaches its official end, having raised $2.6 billion from hundreds of thousands of donors. During the course of Rudenstines presidency, the endowment has more than tripled, to $15 billion.

2000
April: Rudenstine agrees to consider the creation of a faculty committee that would help advise him on financial decisions. I have committed myself to write down something on the way we are going, Rudenstine said. [I am] thinking about a University-wide committee to talk about various large issues that come up before the University as a whole.

April 3: University of Pennsylvania historian Drew Gilpin Faust is named the first permanent dean of the Radcliffe Institute. Rudenstine had spent long hours personally choosing the new dean.

May 3: Rudenstine announces that he will follow the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies and extend benefits to Harvard employees, including health care and job training, but will not implement a living wage.

May 22: Rudenstine announces that he will resign as of June 30, 2001.