Local implications have long had global effects. (Remember Archduke Ferdinand? Remember the Boston Massacre?) And organized violence is also no newcomer to the "contemporary world." (Remember the Barbary Pirates? How about Al Capone?)

The planning document frankly admits that many of its programs "deliberately" attempt to address "serious problems confronting society."

But who are Rudenstine and his deans to define and prioritize the "serious problems confronting society?"

Therein lies the problem. The alumni, faculty and students of Harvard should feel comfortable delegating the problems of academic administration to Rudenstine and the deans.

The top Harvard brass are expert about things like how to construct buildings to increase faculty interaction, how to promote increased financial aid for graduate students, how to recruit brilliant faculty members. It's their job.

But deciding which are the most serious problems confronting society, and giving Harvard the job of solving them, goes beyond the expertise of academic administrators so engrossed in ad hoc tenure committee meetings and academic planning sessions that they barely see The New York Times three days late before they go to bed.

It's a very risky business, one that Rudenstine and his deans would do better to leave to other, more public and broadly composed bodies.

At times, the Rudenstine report is sensible, even stirring. At one point, Rudenstine writes that Harvard is committed to remaining "an institution of humane learning:"

"Our major activities--not only in Arts and Sciences but also in our professional schools--are strongly devoted to the search for fundamental knowledge: for basic patterns that can help us understand nature or human behavior more fully; for principles of broad application that can help to explain phenomena at much deeper levels than would be required if our only goal were the solution of very specific or purely practical problems."

In planning for the future, Harvard should keep that mission in mind, no matter how grave and tempting Rudenstine thinks the world's problems are.