University administrators say that the search for a new Vice President for Government, Community, and Public Affairs has entered its final stages, and that Columbia University’s Vice President for Public Affairs, Alan Stone, is a leading candidate.

While stressing that University President Lawrence H. Summers is keeping his cards close to his chest and could scrap the search and start over if no suitable candidates were found, administrators said they expected an announcement sometime in the near future.

Over the course of the summer, candidates for the job have been meeting with senior administrators, as well as Summers himself.

Summers has said that there is no firm timetable in place, and those in the vice president’s office said that they have been given no indication of when they will have a new boss.

Applications for the job filled a three-inch binder in July, but there are likely only a handful of candidates still in the running. Acting Vice President Jane Corlette said she did not apply for the job. One source said that another prominent insider, Director of Community Affairs Kevin McCluskey, is also not a candidate.

Stone had no comment on the status of the search when reached at Columbia on Friday.

The Candidate

Administrators and others with knowledge of the Harvard position describe Stone, 57, as a strong candidate with experience in the public affairs of higher education. Stone has held the Columbia equivalent of the Harvard vice president job for the last six years, ever since the head of the public affairs office at Columbia was elevated to a cabinet-level position.