The search committee agreed to meet with members of the council. After some controversy over the number of representatives that would meet with the committee, the council elected 15 students--including several students who were not members of the council--to meet with the search officials.

Council representatives and House Committee Chairs also used a previously scheduled lunch with members of the Corporation in February to lobby for increased student input in the search process.

Puttin' on the Ritz

When students returned from intersession in 1991, they learned that the search committee had been dealt an unexpected blow: search committee member and businessman Mockler, the CEO of Gillette Company, had suddenly died.

"We won't consider looking for a new Corporation member until the big question has been decided," Stone said then.

After the search committee met in New York on Feb. 5, 1991, The Crimson reported that three of the original 200 candidates had risen to prominence. Two were already well-known Harvard figures: Andrus Professor of Genetics Philip M. Leder '56 and Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein '61. There was another name from outside of Harvard: Neil L. Rudenstine, an executive vice president at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and formerly a well regarded provost at Princeton.

But when the search committee presented its short list of candidates to the bi-monthly meeting of the overseers on February 10, the list had eight candidates. In addition to Leder, Feldstein and Rudenstine, they were University of Chicago President Gerhard Casper, Houghton Professor of Chemistry Jeremy R. Knowles, Rotch Professor of Atmospheric Sciences Michael B. McElroy, Columbia University Professor of Psychology Donald Hood and Stephen G. Breyer, Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Speculation also focused on Former Corporation member and Acting Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, who was a member of the search committee, as a possible backup choice, despite the fact that he issued a public statement in the summer, just as the search was starting, saying that he was not interested in the post. Some scenarios had Rosovsky as a possible interim President if a permanent head could not be found.