Would someone please list Kagan's qualifications?

But the case for Ms. Kagan as the primary healer on the once-divided campus is sometimes overstated. Much of the work to defuse the bitter atmosphere, which included ideologically driven standoffs over whom to hire, took place under Ms. Kagan's predecessor, Robert Clark, dean for 14 years. He calmed tensions and expanded the faculty.

Those trends accelerated under Ms. Kagan's leadership. Charles Fried, solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan and a Harvard Law faculty member since 1961, said Mr. Clark "was trying, but it was a struggle every time." Ms. Kagan, he said, "was just incredibly politically skillful" at recruitment and at selling faculty on her choices.

He also credits her with arranging a faculty lounge so it offered free lunch and large tables, where faculty could sit and get to know one another. "It was an absolute stroke of genius," Mr. Fried said.

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As a Harvard faculty member, Ms. Kagan impressed then-Harvard President Lawrence Summers with her skill in handling a touchy issue: whether the law school should move to an alternate campus. The faculty had been fiercely opposed, but she helped develop a negotiating position in dealing with the rest of the university that spelled out under what conditions the law school would consider moving.

(snip)

Beyond the political atmosphere, Ms. Kagan is credited with improving student life through upgrades to the physical campus, such as a revamped student center, an upgraded gym and an ice-skating rink that doubled as a volleyball court. And she offered small things, like free coffee outside classrooms and free tampons in the women's restrooms.