After running an advertisement soliciting applications for the Expository Writing Program's directorship two days after their due date, Harvard administrators have extended the application deadline of February 14.

The extension was announced in yesterday's Harvard Gazette, where ads run on January 28 and January 21 has listed a January 26 deadline.

An advertisement in the January 12 Chronicle of Higher Education also gave a January 26 deadline for the application, leaving the national pool of candidates only two weeks to prepare.

The search process began with the December resignation of Expos Director Richard C. Marius. E

The Faculty committee on Expository Writing,chaired by Dean for Undergraduate EducationLawrence Buell, is conducting the search.

The extension was granted because Universitypolicy is to allow at least two weeks forapplication to come in after an advertisement,officials said. The Gazette ads--run respectivelyfive days before and one day after thedeadline--did not conform to the policy.

"The Harvard rule is that we cannot fill a jobuntil two week after the first ad has beenplaced," Faculty of Arts and Sciences AssociateDean for Human Resources Polly Price said thisweek.

"People at Harvard should have a legitimate twoweeks" to apply for the position, said AssistantDean of the Faculty for Academic Planning JosephJ. McCarthy, who is helping to administer theExpos search.

Member of the Standing Faculty Committee andExpos and various sources have said that thedirectorship is all but guaranteed to theassociate director, Nancy Sommers. Some havesuggested that the ads were placed late to limitthe entry pool.

McCarthy denied these rumors in a Crimsoneditorial yesterday.

The late ads were not the fault of his officeor Buell's McCarthy said. They were meant for theJanuary 14 Gazette, but a mistake by the office ofHuman Resources caused the original ad to appear aweek later than the requested date, he said.

Esther Vegh, a represented of the office ofHuman resources, conformed McCarthy's statementabout the mistake.

"We received the job but didn't get it done,"she said.

Buell has said the hopes to conclude the searchby the end of winter