Dean Rosovsky late last night apparently turned down the Yale Corporation's offer to assume the presidency of that institution.

"Henry Rosovsky will not be president of Yale University," a Yale spokesman said last night following an announcement by Henry Chauncy, secretary to the corporation.

Despite repeated attempts to reach Rosovsky by phone and at his home late last night, he could not be contacted after the announcement.

The Yale statement followed a day of speculation at Harvard, during which faculty and administrators placed admittedly uniformed odds on the likelihood of Rosovsky's departure.

Several members of the Yale Corporation declined to comment last night. President Bok could not be reached for comment.

The following article was written yesterday evening before Yale had released Chauncy's statement.

Faculty members and administrators here have been reduced to making small bets on whether Dean Rosovsky will accept the Yale presidency, which he was apparently offered last week.

Rosovsky and Yale Corporation members continued to refuse comment on the situation, and UniversityHall sources said he has discussed the offer only with his closest friends.

"He's playing it completely cool," one UHall administator said yesterday, adding he has not been acting as if he is facing a major career decision.

William Bundy, chairman of the Yale search committee, said yesterday he hopes the corporation will reveal the name of Kingman Brewster's successor "before the end of the week."

But He'd Have to Leave Cambridge

The corporation will meet in New Haven this weekend to discuss the search, which began last spring when Brewster resigned to become ambassador to the Court of St. James.

The search has been conducted in complete secrecy to avoid potential embarrassment to Yale or candidates for the post.

Not So Soon

Lance M. Liebman, a Yale corporation member and a professor of Law here, said early yesterday he does not know if Yale will be able to end the search process so soon. "The end of next week might be too optimistic," he said.