With Aiken on way out, could Hackney be next?

The University's executive vice president split in September and the provost will be gone by July, but the president is here to stay, at least for the time being. Or is he? Following the departures of Marna Whittington and Michael Aiken, rumors are again circulating that the last of the University's top three administrators is on his way out, too. According to an article in Tuesday's Yale Daily News, President Sheldon Hackney is one of 12 candidates being considered by the Yale University presidential search committee. Yale's Acting President Howard Lamar said in an interview last week that the seven-month search could be over at any time, the article said. But Linda Hyatt, acting executive director of the president's office, said yesterday she had "not heard a word" about this. Hyatt said she was "dumbfounded" at the possibility that Hackney would leave the University to become Yale's top administrator. Hackney himself dispelled the rumor in his typically diplomatic style. "It's a rumor that's not true," he said. "I have the best job in the world." Hackney said his only contact with the Yale search committee came in September when he gave the group names to consider -- but not his own. Other University administrators also said yesterday they did not know Hackney was being considered by Yale to fill the post left open when Benno Schmidt Jr. resigned to join a Whittle Communications project aimed at creating profit-making schools.