Archibald MacLeish, Pulitzer Prize poet and former Librarian of Congress, is now being considered for the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory, vacated three months ago by the death of Theodore Spencer.

The Board of Overseers must approve the appointment before it becomes effective. The next meeting of the Overseers is May 9, and MacLeish's nomination is expected shortly before then.

MacLeish would make no comment last night, and members of the faculty are forbidden to make statements on appointments which are not final.

Red Tape

The procedure for appointing a permanent professor is as follows:

The department concerned reports to the Provost that the chair is vacant and may submit a recommendation for a new man. The Provost passes the report, with his own recommendation, to the President.

Then the President appoints an adhoc committee (one appointed for a single purpose), composed of representatives of the department, representatives of related departments, representatives of the faculty at large, some experts in the field from outside the University, and the President himself, acting ex officio.

The committee reports to the Provost, who in turn reports to the President. The President sends the report to the Corporation, which he heads. The Corporation reports its decision to the Board of Overseers for approval.

Hold Government Posts

MacLeish graduated from Yale in 1915 and from the Law School, in 1919. He has held several government positions: assistant secretary of state, assistant director of the Office of War Information, and director of the Office of Facts and Figures.

Since his resignation as a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in April, 1947, he has devoted his time to writing.