Although he had been approached in the earlier fact-gathering stages of the search in September, Bollinger found himself getting a call from the committee again. He interviewed twice with them, just before and after Christmas. He told the committee that House life was crucial to Harvard, and that the University needed to “soften the edges” of its research university, opening up opportunities for undergraduates and making professors more accessible. On a more unorthodox level, the U-Michigan president told committee members that Harvard needed to engage with contemporary culture, citing the Carpenter Center and the American Repertory Theater as examples of successful cultural projects. Finally, Bollinger said it was important to bring Harvard together as a whole university, not just a collection of independent tubs.

Bollinger got to stay on the list. So did Clark, Fineberg, Summers, Sullivan. Others did not. Condi Rice was too busy getting George W. Bush elected president to deal with the Harvard presidency. Richard Klausner, director of the National Center Institute, just did not seem to have “it.” Varmus, it turned out, was not interested in the job.

Late in the year, a new name appeared on the committee’s radar screen. Amy Gutmann ’71, a respected Princeton professor, former dean of the faculty and founder of that university’s Center for Human Values was a young, incredibly accomplished woman. She struck the committee as a revolutionary choice. Her work on ethics and human values had impacted undergraduates, and she had begun a series of freshman seminars similar to the program at Harvard that the committee thought warranted expansion.

“She’s constantly thinking and looking at contemporary problems and how to bring the University to bear on those issues,” her colleague David Wilkins explained. And thus, on January 23, Gutmann arrived for a one-night stay in New York to meet with the committee.

As the search progressed, Fineberg—once seen by the committee as the early leader—began to look less and less like a shoo-in. He had arrived at Harvard in 1967 and barely left since. Fineberg possessed a master’s degree, a medical degree and a Ph.D—all from Harvard. A former dean of the school of public health and now the number two at the University, he wasn’t the “outside the box” choice the committee wanted. Plus, over the course of Fineberg’s long history at Harvard, he had attracted his share of internal enemies. The Harvard Alumni Association, for example, objected that Fineberg was a micro-manager. Nevertheless, as the strongest internal candidate, Fineberg had staying power.

Through December and January the names fell off the list one by one.

“We were moving ever more quickly to the ultimately successful person,” a committee member said.

At times though, the committee felt like it was blowing through the short list too quickly. At one point around New Year’s, the committee spent part of a meeting discussing the idea of an interim president, a “placeholder” who would hold the job until the “perfect” president came along—much like what Gray had done for Yale years ago. In the end, as the list narrowed to the final five, then four, then three, the committee became satisfied with the available pool.