Search Committee Wraps Up Long List

The committee charged with selecting a new Harvard president has finished compiling and begun narrowing its long list of candidates, sources have said.

After spending the summer gathering names of potential candidates from Harvard affiliates, the nine-member presidential search committee has created a list of some 200 names of candidates to succeed outgoing President Derek C. Bok, one source said.

"Everybody has been advised of the opportunity to submit names, and the basic solicitation of suggestions is complete," said one official who is familiar with the search but asked not to be identified.

"The initial creation of a list has pretty much been finished. The list is now in the process of being reduced," the source said, adding that the list is notably diverse in terms of race and gender.

Although the committee has already begun narrowing the list, in part by weeding out unlikely candidates, it will likely continue adding some names to the list as it removes others, according to one Harvard official. For now, the official added, the committee's goal is to reduce the list to about 50 names.

Although the committee members will consider many different criteria for selecting a new chief executive, they have stated that the next president must be a recognized scholar, have considerable management experience and skills, and have a vision for the University.

Age, also, will be a factor in the decision, since the next president could hold that post for as long as two decades. And the committee has said that most presidents have held some kind of degree from the University, although a prior tie to Harvard is not mandatory.

After the search committee--which includes six members of the Corporation and three members of the Board of Overseers--is finished narrowing the list, the Corporation itself will officially nominate a candidate, and submit it for approval to the Board of Overseers. Charles P. Slichter '45, the senior member of the Corporation, is chairing the search committee.

The committee has said it hopes to make its final selection by late winter or early spring.

In interviews this week, sources have confirmed that two more leading eduators are on the long list: 56-year-old Thomas Ehrlich '56, president of Indiana University; and Dudley R. Herschbach, 58, a Nobel laureate and Harvard's Baird professor of science.

Also among the candidates said to be on the list are 55-year old James O. Freedman '57, president of Dartmouth College; Hanna H. Gray, 59, president of the University of Chicago; Nannerl O. Keohane, 48 president of Wellesley College; and George E. Rupp, 48, president of Rice University.

Other names include Adele S. Simmons '63, president of the MacArthur Foundation; Robert D. Putnam, 49, dean of the Kennedy School of Government; Robert C. Clark, 44, dean of the Law School; and 44-year old Harvey V. Fineberg '67, dean of the School of Public Health.