The Crimson scooped the nation on the announcement that former Princeton Provost Neil L. Rudenstine would become the 26th President of Harvard University. Rudenstine's stated commitment to diversity won him praise from The Crimson's staff, as excerpts from the editorial following the announcement show.

After listening to the priorities and concerns of Neil L. Rudenstine, we are truly astounded that he was chosen to be Harvard's 26th president.

Not because we disagree with his priorities and concerns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rudenstine's priorities and concerns are the same priorities and concerns we have plastered all over this page for years.

That's why we're so surprised. We know that the Kremlinesque presidential search committee wasn't listening to the priorities or concerns of The Crimson staff, or any other students, for that matter. Could it be that, deep down, the search committee--which we have compared unfavorably to the Mafia--shared our priorities and concerns all along?

Probably not. In any case, congratulations are due to Rudenstine, and we welcome his selection with high hopes--and high expectations. Here we provide a synopsis of some primary priorities and concerns. We sense the possibility that they may finally be addressed.

Harvard can certainly boast one of the world's finest faculties. It can also boast of the world's whitest, malest, oldest, stodgiest, non-teachingest faculties. Much can be done to attract professors of diverse races, genders, ages, academic backgrounds and educational attitudes without sacrificing quality.

Under Harvard's present system, tenure decisions are consigned to ad hoc committees of experts from outside the University. This archaic process excludes innovative scholarship, devalues teaching skills and drives young talent to other schools....Rudenstine should consider installing a tenure track. At the very least, he should abolish the ad hocs.

But administrative changes are not enough...a fundamental revolution in attitude [is needed]. Bok has formally vetoed or informally discouraged the tenure applications of several popular professors, especially in non-traditional fields of scholarship...

Harvard needs junior faculty in Afro-American Studies. It has none. Harvard must make a serious effort to increase the pool of scholars in the field and others like it. It hasn't.

These same criticisms apply to Harvard's half-hearted efforts to attract women and minority scholars. Harvard must do more to fill up the pipeline with women and minority graduate students. By making academic professions more attractive to potential scholars, Harvard can help make academia more diverse.

Finally, Harvard is notorious for its teachers' aversion to teaching, not to mention their aversion to students. Under Bok, a strong supporter of Danforth Center research into teaching methods, the Medical School instituted New Pathways, a highly successful program emphasizing student-teacher interaction in small groups. Similar progress is badly needed throughout the University.

Harvard's undergraduate education is a mess. As undergraduates, this bothers us quite a lot. Once again, the primary obstacle may be University attitudes--especially the attitudes at the top. To undergraduates, as to Arthur Miller's ill-fated salesman, attention must be paid.

The undergraduate program is riddled with problems--inadequate advising, inaccessible professors, clueless teaching fellows, to name a few. But most students of the College would agree that Public Enemy Number One is the big, bad ineffectual Core Curriculum which, ironically, has been praised as one of Bok's major accomplishments.

The Core purports to expose Harvard students to a wide range of "modes of inquiry." Of course, Core professors don't teach "modes of inquiry." ....We don't learn much of anything, period.

To make matters worse, Core classes are logistical nightmares. They are tremendously over-enrolled and incompetently organized. It's time for radical change. Distribution requirements would be an improvement. A standardized series of introductory survey courses would be an improvement. Anything would be an improvement on the irrational system now in place. Rudenstine should look into the administration and substance of the Core.