Rumors Swirl As Princeton Search Winds Down

After seven months of searching, the hunt for Princeton’s new leader could be completed as early as tomorrow, following a scheduled meeting of the Princeton Board of Trustees.

The trustees—like Harvard’s Overseers—must approve the search committee’s recommended candidate.

“If the timing is such that a recommendation can be made during a regularly scheduled meeting, then great, but if not, a special meeting can be called,” Thomas Wright, vice president of Princeton and secretary to the search committee, said last week.

Wright said he doubted the committee would be ready to present a candidate to the board by tomorrow’s meeting, but he would not rule it out as a possibility.

Possible candidates from within Princeton include current Princeton Dean of the Faculty Joseph H. Taylor and his predecessor in that position, ethics Professor Amy Gutmann ’71.

Taylor is a physics professor and Nobel Prize-winner.

Gutmann-who was among the top four candidates in Harvard’s search—is currently Princeton’s Rockefeller University Professor of Politics, and is the founding director of the University Center for Human Values.

“[Taylor and Gutmann] are both very popular—they would be obvious choices,” said Professor Hendrik A. Hartog of the history department. “We all assumed that the two of them are among the people being considered by the search committee.”

The search committee—also like Harvard’s—is tight-lipped. Characteristically, search committee members would not confirm whether Taylor and Gutmann were being considered.

Theirs are not the only two names in the rumor mill. Lee C. Bollinger’s name made headlines during the Harvard search. Media speculation suggests that the president of the University of Michigan may once again dominate the news as Princeton draws closer to finding Princeton President Harold T. Shapiro’s successor.

But in a recent interview with The Crimson, Bollinger—a renowned First Amendment scholar and champion of affirmative action—said he does not wish to put Michigan through a search for a successor at this late a date.

“I will not be a candidate for any other position in the foreseeable future,” Bollinger said earlier this month.

Paul M. Wythes, who is a trustee and vice chair of the search committee said last week that he felt the search process was on track to select a candidate by late spring.

Wythes said he considered the search to be in phase two of the selection process. While phase one consisted of “name gathering and sourcing,” Wythes said that the committee is now interviewing candidates and narrowing down its choices.

“We don’t have a list, we’re just narrowing down things from a large number of names,” he said.

Phase three, according to Wythes, will be the selection of a candidate.

Wythes said last week that the interviews have not yet begun to focus on one particular favorite candidate.

“We’re always talking to people,” he said, “but no serious discussions with any one person.”

Wythes said that candidates have been interviewed both with and without the knowledge that they were under consideration to be Shapiro’s successor.

Wythes would not specify what particular characteristics the search committee is seeking.

“We’re looking for someone with good character, very honest-all those good things,” he said.

Indeed, the 18-member search committee, which includes five faculty members and two undergraduate student representatives, has not divulged many details at all about the process of selecting their next president. The committee has maintained the necessity of keeping the process completely confidential and has criticized Harvard’s presidential search committee for allowing names of candidates to be leaked to the press.

“We’re not speaking to the press, unlike your search committee, which seems to have a lot of holes,” said Mark Johnston, a philosophy professor on the committee.

“Confidentiality is extremely important from the standpoint both of the institution that’s seeking a new president and anybody who is thought to be a potential candidate,” Committee Chair Robert Rawson said earlier this year. “It’s extraordinarily disruptive to be dealing with short lists when the may or may not be accurate.”

Even the standard search buzz is quieter these days, according to numerous members of the Princeton faculty.

“It’s about as tight to the chest as can be, and that’s fine with me,” Professor Theodore K. Rabb said about the search process.

Shapiro has told the committee that should they be unable to find a replacement in time for the start of the next academic year, he would be willing to stay on for another term. But Wythes said that he did not anticipate that the committee would have to make that request.

“We’re working towards a late spring date,” he said. “I have no reason to believe that we can’t do that, but President Shapiro’s been very nice about it, and if it takes a little longer, he’s more than willing to stay.”

—Joshua E. Gewolb and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.