Five candidates have been named preliminary finalists in the search for a new Harvard Dining Services (HDS) director, and acting HDS Director Leonard D. Condenzio is on the list.

A source close to the search said dining services officials from Stanford University, Middlebury College, Vanderbilt University and the University of Maine are also on a short list to succeed Michael P. Berry as HDS director.

The candidates have all been interviewed in Cambridge by a search committee consisting of students, a house master and college administrators and central administrators.

Condenzio has served as acting director of HDS since Berry left Harvard to become a vice president at Disneyland in April. Condenzio previously served as associate director for residential dining operations and has been at Harvard since 1991.

Condenzio was at a national university dining services conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico yesterday and did not return several phone calls.

Shirley Everett, manager of dining services at Stanford, is also reportedly on the list. Everett, too, was also at the New Mexico conference yesterday and could not be reached for comment. Members of her office staff said they did not know she was a candidate for the Harvard post.

Everett has had a large hand in crafting Stanford's meal plan, which has received poor reviews from students. In a poll conducted last spring by Stanford's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, the school's meal plan received an average grade of C+ from 216 students. Thirty-four students gave the plan a D and four more gave it an F, while only 14 awarded their meal system some kind of A.

In addition, a high-ranking school official told the Daily in March that Stanford's meal plan is the second most expensive in the Consortium on Financing Higher Education Schools, a group of 31 top private colleges and universities.

Earlier this spring, the school launched a comprehensive review of the program, the first in its 10-year history, according to the Daily.

Frank X. Gladu, head of dining services at Vanderbilt, refused to confirm that he is a candidate for the directorship.

"It's still very preliminary, and you know, I'm not sure what I would be at liberty say," Gladu said in a telephone interview from Albuquerque yesterday.

Asked if he was denying his candidacy, Gladu said: "I'm not."

Gladu said he has been at Vanderbilt for nine years.

Although he said his observations are preliminary, he said that he was "intrigued" with the role of dining services at Harvard and the house system in general.

"I think that is a very positive way to encourage learning outside the classroom and the education of the whole student," Gladu said.