Will Massachusetts Hall Be Next Stop For Gore?

There's more than one presidency at stake here.

As Vice President Al Gore '69 waited for the recount yesterday, pundits were already speculating that he could be in the running for the nation's second most highly contested presidency--Harvard's.

Tuesday night, as networks goofed, rhetoric shifted and fickle Florida fluctuated, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw tossed off a comment about Gore's future to millions of viewers, noting that Gore might be a fit for Harvard's presidential spot. On CBS, a guest of Dan Rather's did the same, as anxious voters awaited the verdict.

As early as Monday, Slate's Timothy Noah '80 began the gossip by devoting his "Chatterbox" column to Gore and the Harvard presidency.

Noah said a list of possible presidential candidates published in The New York Times inspired him to suggest Gore to replace outgoing University President Neil L. Rudenstine.

"I was struck by the implausibility of Clinton because of the Lewinsky scandal and the more prosaic fact that he had no previous connection to Harvard," Noah says in an interview, referring to flying rumors that President Clinton would be considered.

But Noah says the vice president is a much more realistic prospect than his boss is. Gore is a former member of the Board of Overseers, the university's second-highest governing board.

"He has a great affinity for the academic life," Noah says. "It is entirely speculation on my part, it's probably unlikely, but it's at least as worth discussing as any of the other names I've seen mentioned."

But longtime search and University officials dismiss Gore's chances as slim, if existent.

Former Overseer Joan M Hutchins '61 says the next University President must have a true understanding of higher education issues. The University needs a true academic--and she doesn't consider Gore to be one.

"To my way of thinking, it would be completely out of the realm of possibility," she says.

Academic search expert John W. Chandler, of the headhunting firm Academic Search Consultation Service, says that search committees and governing boards sometimes take an interest in prominent politicos but rarely appoint them.

Search committees usually have two questions about such candidates, Chandler says. First, they question if the person has any "political itch" left.

"There can always be a worry about whether the tenure would be short and the person would go on to another political position," Chandler said.

Experts predict that, win or lose, the close vote ensures that Gore will remain the political spotlight for some time--not necessarily ideal for a university president.

Next, Chandler adds, search committees worry whether the candidate's political affiliation might concern alums with fat wallets.

Columbia University presidential scholar Alan Brinkley says even if Gore is a more logical pick than Clinton, he is still a long shot.

"He's a Harvard alum with no scandals in his past (or at least no big ones)," Brinkley writes in an e-mail message. "But I would be surprised if Harvard chose a partisan figure to be its president....I suspect Harvard will not want someone whose presence would alienate some potential donors."

On A Lighter Note

David Greenberg--a Hofstadter Fellow at Columbia University who has written widely on academia--was still hoping for a Gore win last night. He said he didn't think Gore and Harvard would be a good fit.

"He wouldn't be my ideal of what a school like Harvard should be looking for. ...It's just in the air because of the inevitable question, 'What does he do?' "

"Bill Clinton should run for Senate from Hawaii. He'd get reelected over and over. He'd be running around with a cigar and a lei around his neck and a Hawaiian shirt," Greenberg said. "It just seems like such a wonderful image."

"In some sense, the idea of Gore going to Harvard as president is a slightly more serious version of the same kind of fancy," he added.

Humorist Andy S. Borowitz '80 recently wrote a piece for Harvard Magazine about the Harvard-Clinton rumor. Presented with the Gore option, he said he thought that if the vice president won the popular vote but not the Electoral College, he would be in a good position to sit out four years and run again.

"He could be doing a lot of community outreach over the next four years," Borowitz said. "Visiting Buddhist temples is a favorite activity of his."

On the other hand, Borowitz joked, Gore might be a good choice--after all, he invented the place.

"The sad thing is that even if the Corporation chooses him, Bush will still get the job," Borowitz quipped. "Why be president of Harvard when you can just sit on the side and watch Bush for four years and when he does anything wrong just sigh impatiently?"

Another Rumor Bites the Dust

As speculation about Gore and Harvard begins, another presidency rumor has now passed.

First Lady Hillary Clinton secured a solid victory in her New York Senate race, and the last chance that she would be considered for Rudenstine's position died.

The thought was floated on MSNBC several months ago and was also mentioned on Rush Limbaugh's conservative radio show.

After her name made it onto the search circuit, many alums called the University, threatening to withhold donations if she were chosen as president.

--Staff writer Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan can be reached at vganesh@fas.harvard.edu. Joshua E. Gewolb contributed to the reporting of this story.