Key Players Mum As Story Scooped

As rumors of Drew Gilpin Faust’s selection as University president circulated yesterday, reporters attempting to confirm the story encountered unreturned phone calls, repeated “no comments,” and closed doors.

The staff at the Radcliffe Institute, where Faust is currently dean, remained mum, though four staff members were seen milling in front of Faust’s office shortly before the workday ended. Standing in a group, rather than working at their desks, their demeanor suggested that something had happened during the day, but all refused to comment.

Radcliffe’s official spokeswoman, Whitney Espich, said only that Faust was not in Cambridge that day.

Faust’s whereabouts proved difficult to pin down: an evening call to her house on Brattle Street revealed that she was in Philadelphia, attending a Board of Trustees meeting at Bryn Mawr. The individual who answered the phone—possibly her husband, Harvard professor Charles Rosenberg—said he did not know when she would return to Cambridge.

Calls to Philadelphia-area hotels did not yield any confirmation of Faust’s location, and Faust’s cell phone was turned off throughout the evening. Her daughter, Jessica Rosenberg, also had her cell phone off and could not be reached at the New Yorker, where she works.

Individuals connected to the University and the search process stayed quiet as well. Several members of the Board of Overseers contacted by phone refused to comment, as did the University’s official spokesman.

Two of the other presidential search finalists—Provost Steven E. Hyman and Law School Dean Elena Kagan—kept a low profile. Hyman, whose Mass. Hall office was dark by 6:15 p.m., declined to come to the door when two Crimson reporters appeared at his house. And Kagan smiled and went into her house when approached by a reporter.

In an apparent coincidence, the Boston Symphony Orchestra is set to play Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust” on Monday, the day after Faust is expected to be named the University’s 28th president.

—Paras D. Bhayani, Stephanie S. Garlow, Katherine M. Gray, Javier C. Hernandez, Laurence H. M. Holland, Kristina M. Moore, and Daniel J. T. Schuker contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.