In the past few weeks, the search committee has been conducting interviews with possible candidates for the presidency, sources close to the process say. Sources say that after the Overseers meeting, some members of the committee traveled to New York where they conducted interviews.

Sources close to the search process say that typically the committee interviews candidates about what Harvard needs in a president, without telling them that they are being considered for the job.

As they conduct these interviews, the committee will be trying to discriminate between people with radically different backgrounds.

The names under closest consideration range widely from Harvard administrators, to a hospital chief, to a head of a large public University. And though Clinton and Gore were not on the list read to Overseers, their Treasury Secretary remains a leading candidate.

The interview process can be lengthy; Rudenstine estimates that he was interviewed six times before his appointment.

In the Rudenstine search the committee also interviewed a number of other candidates multiple times; its intentions were not clear, even to the candidates, until the final days.

University spokesman Joe Wrinn said yesterday that Harvard has no comment on the status of the present search.

--Alan E. Wirzbicki contributed to the reporting of this article.

--Staff writer Joshua E. Gewolb can be reached at gewolb@fas.harvard.edu.