The professor speculated that Slaughter—a former Harvard Law School professor—might rejoin her husband, Professor of Government Andrew Moravcsik, in Cambridge.

According to the professor, Moravcsik failed to secure a tenured professorship at Princeton.

Moravcsik declined to comment, and Slaughter could not be reached by The Crimson.

KSG professors also cited three economists from the Faculty of Arts and Scientists (FAS) as potential contenders: Associate Dean for Social Sciences David M. Cutler ’87, Feldstein and Allison Professor of Economics Lawrence F. Katz.

Katz, who is on the 10-person advisory committee, and Feldstein both said they were not interested in the post. Cutler could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Many of the candidates cited by KSG sources have worked with Summers in the past, both in Cambridge and Washington.

Cutler, Ellwood, Feldstein, Katz and Krueger all co-authored papers with Summers, an economist.

Others collaborated with the former treasury secretary in the White House on Clinton’s economic team.

But one senior KSG professor said that choosing an economist for the deanship could potentially exacerbate tensions between the school’s economists and academics from other disciplines.

The professor said that “economists tend to give higher weight to academic rigor,” while other social scientists are more focused on shaping public policy.

But the professor called Ellwood “multi-dimensional in a way some other economists are not.”

KSG students praised Summers for soliciting their input in the opening stages of the dean search.

Summers met with 15 student leaders in December to discuss the values they hoped to see reflected by the next dean, said Elizabeth J. Carr, a mid-career professional studying at KSG.

According to Carr, students stressed academic credentials, commitment to public service and fund-raising capabilities.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.