Soon after, Corporation members filed out of Loeb House and took chauffeured sedans back to the airport.
The committee began its meetings yesterday at the Boston Harbor Hotel, where members met for several hours, although it did not interview candidates.
Last weekend, the committee met with Bollinger in New York for a third time.
Judith B. McLaughlin, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a national expert on presidential searches, says that the search committee is likely to ensure that a candidate will accept the post before asking the full Board of Overseers, Harvard's second highest governing board, to meet to approve the choice--a step required by Harvard tradition.
In the end, McLaughlin added, the selection of a president is "a leap of faith."
--Andrew J. Miller, Catherine E. Shoichet and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to the reporting of this story.