About 20 other outside candidates have beenrecommended, but Rudenstine said he is stilllooking for candidates from the outside.

"That means that by mid-June afterCommencement, we can sit down and we'll probablyhave...our working base," the president said. "Sobetween then and the end of August, we'll beworking on that."

Rudenstine said there would "certainly" be adean in the fall.

Rudenstine also appeared optimistic that thesearch for a Kennedy School dean, now in its 13thmonth, would come to a close soon.

"I can't say yet, but I think there will be [anannouncement] in not too long a time," Rudenstinesaid, adding it was "not impossible" that theannouncement could come during Commencement Week.

Rudenstine has been searching for a new deansince Albert Carnesale was named provost last May.Carnesale has split his time between Mass. Halland the Kennedy School in the past year