Neil Leon Rudenstine (born January 21, 1935) is an American
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
,
educator, and
administrator. He served as president of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
from 1991 to 2001.
Early life and education
Rudenstine was born in
Danbury
Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut.
Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
, the son of Mae (née Esperito) and Harry Rudenstine, a prison guard. His father was a Ukrainian Jew who emigrated from
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
, his mother a Roman Catholic and the daughter of immigrants from
Campobasso
Campobasso (, ; nap, label= Campobassan, Cambuàsce ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by Sa ...
, Italy.
Rudenstine was raised as a Roman Catholic and grew up speaking Italian with his mother’s family. Later in life, he said, he began to understand more about his Jewish heritage. He also pointed out that he had attended an Episcopalian boarding school and a university with Presbyterian roots. "One way or another, I’ve become extremely ecumenical", he said. He attended the
Wooster School in Danbury on a scholarship and was selected to participate in
Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program.
Rudenstine graduated with an A.B. in English from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1956 after completing his senior thesis, "The Burden of Poetry: A Study in the Art of
John Keats,
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...
and
Thomas Stearns Eliot". At Princeton, he participated in Army R.O.T.C. After serving in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
as an artillery officer, he attended
New College, University of Oxford, on a
Rhodes Scholarship and earned an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
In 1964, Rudenstine received a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in English literature from Harvard; his dissertation, ''
Sir Philip Sidney
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
: The Styles of Love'', directed by
Douglas Bush, treated Sidney's poetic development.
Career
Most of Rudenstine's career has been dedicated to educational administration. He taught at Harvard from 1964 to 1968 as an instructor and then assistant professor in the Department of English and
American Literature and Language.
From 1968 to 1988, Rudenstine was a faculty member and senior administrator at Princeton. A scholar of
Renaissance literature, he was an associate professor and then full professor of English. He also held a series of administrative posts at Princeton:
* Dean of students (1968–1972)
* Dean of the college (1972–1977)
* Provost (1977–1988)
After his time at Princeton, he served as executive vice-president of the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
from 1988 to 1991.
President of Harvard
Rudenstine served as
president of Harvard
The president of Harvard University is the chief academic administration, administrator of Harvard University and the ''Ex officio member, ex officio'' president of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard Corporation. Each is appoi ...
from 1991 to 2001. He gained a reputation as an effective
fundraiser
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
, overseeing a period of highly successful growth in
Harvard's endowment.
Rudenstine led Harvard's first university-wide fundraising campaign in modern history, raising more than $2.6 billion, surpassing the goal of $2.1 billion. With the funds, Harvard increased student financial aid, supported new educational and research programs, and allowed for the creation of new buildings, as well as renovation of existing spaces. Rudenstine's tenure at Harvard also oversaw an endowment growth of $4.7 billion in 1991 to more than $15 billion.
Rudenstine was a strong supporter of university-based research during his presidency as he helped to institute the Science Coalition in the mid-1990s and oversaw the university's federally sponsored research support grow to about $320 million in 2000 from $200 million in 1991.
During his tenure, Rudenstine worked extensively to bring together Harvard’s diverse schools in a way that prompted more effective collaboration. To cultivate inter-school unity, Rudenstine developed many interdisciplinary programs such as the Mind, Brain and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative, the University Committee on the Environment, and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. He reorganized the university’s administrative structure so that the school deans worked also as a consultative cabinet, and he recreated the provost position to oversee the interfaculty initiatives created during his presidency.
Rudenstine’s leadership oversaw the establishment of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, which merged Radcliffe College with Harvard. Its creation was successful and ambitious as it created a community of faculty and fellows across a wide span of the arts and sciences, as well as a specific commitment to the study of women, gender, and society. At the time the Dean of Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, Drew Faust said of Rudenstine, “He made it possible and continues to offer me and the Institute support in ways too varied to enumerate. The Institute would not exist without him”.
Rudenstine was a staunch advocate of universities viewing race and ethnicity as one of many factors in the admissions process and advocated extensively on the importance of a diverse student body. In April 2000 during the thirtieth-anniversary celebration of the Department of Afro-American Studies, he stated, “Harvard will continue to take ethnicity and race into account, along with many other factors, as it admits students”.Rudenstine also was committed to providing increased financial aid and scholarships to students from a range of financial circumstances. Student scholarships and fellowship grants increased from $59 million in 1991 to $132 million in 2000, a year before his departure from the presidency.
He was known as a very mild-mannered president, supporting the arts and humanities and generally avoiding internal controversy, usually taking a hands-off approach to leading the university. He is also known for his initially hostile response to the
Harvard Living Wage Campaign of 1998–2001, an initiative that drew the active support of thousands of students, faculty, and alumni, including the late Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
. Some of Rudenstine’s frustration stemmed from a sit-in organized by students and alumni, which occupied administrative offices, including his, for more than two weeks, slowing University business. Listening to the community, Rudenstine formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies at Harvard, which surveyed employment practices and delivered a report to the President. The committee cited the university’s strong record as an employer and recommended additional measures to build on the University’s offerings for employees, which Rudenstine endorsed and advocated for during the remainder of his tenure.
In November 1994, the University announced that Rudenstine would take a medical leave of absence on the advice of doctors, who noted that he was suffering from severe fatigue and exhaustion. At the time, Rudenstine described the decision to take a leave as one he made with “the greatest reluctance.” He took a three-month leave of absence, during which provost
Albert Carnesale
Albert Carnesale (born July 2, 1936) is an American academic and a specialist in arms control and national security. He is a former chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, provost of Harvard University, and dean of the Harvard K ...
served as acting president. Rudenstine returned from his absence in February 1994 and went on to serve seven more years until stepping down in 2001.
Retirement
Rudenstine now chairs the Advisory Board for
ARTstor
Artstor is a nonprofit organization that builds and distributes the Digital Library, an online resource of more than 2.5 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, and Shared Shelf, a Web-based cataloging and image manageme ...
and teaches a yearly freshman seminar in 20th-century poetry at Harvard.
Bibliography
* ''Pointing Our Thoughts: Reflections on Harvard and Higher Education, 1991–2001'' (2001)
* ''The House of Barnes: The Man, the Collection, the Controversy'' (2012)
* ''Ideas of Order: A Close Reading of Shakespeare's Sonnets'' (2014)
Memberships and affiliations
Rudenstine is an honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford and
Emmanuel College,
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, and Provost Emeritus at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. In 1998, as president of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, Rudenstine was awarded an honorary degree by the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, in a ceremony in which the president of
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
,
Richard Levin
Richard Charles Levin (born April 7, 1947) is an American economist and academic administrator. From 1993 to 2013, he was the 22nd President of Yale University. From March 2014 to June 2017, he was Chief Executive Officer of Coursera.
Early lif ...
, was also honored.
Rudenstine is also a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, a former director of the
American Council on Education
The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educatio ...
, and a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations, the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, and the
Committee for Economic Development.
Rudenstine has been a member of various advisory groups, including the National Commission on Preservation and Access and the Council on Library Resources. He has also served as a trustee of the
College Entrance Examination Board
The College Board is an American nonprofit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a ...
and the Wooster School, of which he is a graduate. He serves on the boards of the
New York Public Library, the
Goldman Sachs Foundation
The Goldman Sachs Foundation is a New York-based, not-for-profit private foundation that is a subsidiary of the financial services firm Goldman Sachs and has the goal of bettering humanity worldwide, especially regarding health and education. In ...
, the
Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...
, and many others in the United States and in Europe.
Personal life
Rudenstine is married to
Angelica Zander, an art historian. They have three children and four grandchildren.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudenstine, Neil Leon
1935 births
Alumni of New College, Oxford
American Episcopalians
American people of Italian descent
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
People of Molisan descent
American Rhodes Scholars
Camp Rising Sun alumni
Fellows of New College, Oxford
Harvard University alumni
Living people
People from Danbury, Connecticut
Presidents of Harvard University
Princeton University alumni
Princeton University faculty
Members of the American Philosophical Society