Harvard names new Provost - What will he want to do in Allston?

My sense is that every time a new person comes to Harvard in one of these high-level positions (Provost, Vice President for Capital Planning) it resets the clock on Harvard's planning for Allston. These new people are unlikely to accept 100% of the decisions that their predecessors made, and it seems equally likely that they will re-do some of the planning processes so that they can learn the issues and make their own decisions.

So my expectations for Harvard's Allston Work Team report (due sometime this summer) are lowered by the fact that a new Provost who was not involved in any of their deliberations will soon arrive and use that report as just one input into his own decision-making.

Harvard names new provost Boston Business Journal

"Garber will succeed Steven E. Hyman, who announced late last year that he would step down at the end of this academic year. Garber’s appointment is effective Sept. 1.

Among the areas Garber will focus on include “leading the University’s efforts to define academic aspirations and achievable programs in the entrepreneurial space represented by Allston"

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/4/15/garber-harvard-university-hyman-provost-faust

Garber said he will prioritize the integration of Harvard’s schools and the University’s future development in Allston.

“One of the biggest attractions of this job is the ability to participate in the future of the Allston campus,” Garber said. “I view Allston as an opportunity unlike any other in American higher education today, where there is a campus that can be used to help realize the University’s vision for the future and make this a truly twenty-first century university.”