Rudenstine personally spearheaded the search. He devoted an exceptional amount of time to choosing a dean for the Institute--by some accounts, nearly two hours a day.
"I made myself responsible for the appointment in the beginning," Rudenstine said yesterday.
The president was advised by two committees, one composed of faculty members and a second smaller committee of four former Trustees of Radcliffe College and four Harvard representatives drawn from the ranks of the Board of Overseers and the Harvard Corporation.
Early this February, Rudenstine and the committees had whittled the list of candidates down to roughly a dozen, with Rudenstine promising to have a short list of "five to eight by March."
Rudenstine said yesterday that two finalists for the dean's post came to Cambridge for interviews in the last few weeks. Faust got outstanding recommendations from the two committees, Rudenstine said, and "was clearly my first choice as well."
He also hinted that the finalists met with other University officials while visiting Cambridge.