Campaign Northwestern is set to wrap up in August, and some people, myself included, are starting to look for signs that University President Henry Bienen might be nearing retirement. He has always said he would stay until the campaign ended, but he has never said how long he would stay after that.

With that in mind, now is as good a time as any to start looking at what Bienen has done in his eight years at NU.

He raised more than $1.4 billion to create science facilities that one day might push NU into the upper echelon of research institutions. But at the same time, he’s weathered several controversial decisions that have caused massive student uproar on campus.

Although many of his actions have angered students, in the long run he might be remembered as one of the most important figures in NU’s history.

Bienen was embroiled in controversy almost from the moment he stepped foot on campus. He came to NU in 1995, just in time to watch 17 Asian-American students conduct a 23-day hunger strike to bring attention to their fight for an Asian-American studies minor.

In 1998, he raised tuition 17 percent, causing a huge outcry among students. In the eight years since Bienen got here, tuition has increased 73 percent, from $16,400 to $28,404, and financial aid gifts have not increased at the same rate.

Bienen has also had to deal with several racially charged incidents, from white supremacist Matt Hale visiting campus in Winter 2000 to the swastikas and racial slurs being scrawled on dorm room doors this year. When Bienen has discussed with students possible solutions to the race problems on campus, his straightforward dismissal of unfeasible ideas has angered students who see it as another sign that administrators don’t care about minority students.

Resentment toward the administration bubbled over last year when NU tried to fill in about one-fifth of the Lagoon, a picturesque pond in the middle of the Lakefill. Students held rallies, formed alliances and demanded more input on university decisions. It became apparent after the first few days that students were upset more by the secretive nature with which the administration handled the matter than at the actual decision itself.

Bienen has a very set view of what sort of input students should have. Although he seems genuinely interested in their input, he is just as genuinely interested in being able to ignore it if he wants.

“Any department that is disinterested in what students think about what should be done in that department is very foolish,” he said in the aftermath of the Lagoon debacle. “That doesn’t mean, ‘Hey gang, get happy. You’re going to choose the faculty here.’ Being influential and being heard are two very different things.”

In the end, though, I don’t think any of that will matter. Under Bienen’s leadership, NU has raised funds for new athletic facilities, two new dormitories and new academic buildings, including state-of-the-art facilities for cancer and nanotechnology research. In 20 years when those buildings are pumping out important research and a degree from NU carries the same cachet as a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, people are going to look back at Bienen as NU’s greatest president.