"It's a useful caution, since the overseershave to approve the selection. It gives them asense of having a stake," says Riesman. "But inaddition to the legitimation function, there's anactual increase in the diversity."

But the committee remains primarily composed ofpeople whose primary affiliations are not with theacademic world.

Despite the panel's make-up, Cabot Professor ofthe Natural Sciences John E. Dowling '57 says heis counting on Gray and Rosovsky to be strongadvocates for academic values.

"I hope [the committee members] find apresident who will be a real leader in education,not just at Harvard but for the whole country," hesays.

And others say that the corporate and legalperspectives of the search panel will be helpfulin choosing a president who can sucessfully lead aplanned $2 billion-plus capital campaign, expectedto be higher education's largest ever.

Defenders of the committee also say that itcuts across several of the major academicdisciplines: Hope and Williams are lawyers;Slichter is a scientist; Gray is a historian;White-head is familiar with public policy; andRosovsky is an economist and expert on Japan.

Student Input?

The Undergraduate Council and Harvard Watch, aRalph Nadersponsored watchdog group, have calledfor more student involvement in the searchprocess, but some Harvard affiliates say that thecommittee is already in tune with undergraduateconcerns.

Four members are graduates of the College, andone, Hope, has a son and a daughter who arecurrent undergraduates. Richard J. Zeckhauser '62,Ramsey professor of political economy at theKennedy School, says that these members'familiarity with undergraduate life might do asmuch to represent student interests as actuallyhaving a student on the panel.

"There are people with deep interests in allthe University's constituencies" on the committee,he says. "The challenge is conveying that to theworld at large.