For Hackney, road to NEH began in Dec.

President Sheldon Hackney's nomination for the chairpersonship of the National Endowment for the Humanities followed a lengthy selection process which began in December, a Washington lobbyist said last week. When President Clinton came into office, then-NEH Chairperson Lynne Cheyney was due to remain in her job for 18 more months and Clinton had no reason to expect she would leave until 1994, said John Hammer, director of the National Humanities Alliance, a Washington humanities lobbying group. "Once Mrs. Cheyney resigned -- and she was the longest serving chairman in history -- a lot of things started going on," Hammer said. Clinton's announcement of his intention to nominate Hackney followed weeks of speculation that the University's president was the leading candidate. Hackney said last week that the entire selection process was "mysterious." "It is a bit mysterious because it happens for me behind a bit of a curtain," Hackney said. "I didn't know what was going on there." In fact, Hackney said, he did not have communication with the White House until 10 days prior to Clinton's announcement. "My first contact with the White House was 10 days ago to set up a meeting that occurred last Friday," Hackney said last Tuesday. "That was my first real conversation with the [Office of White House personnel]. We had a nice conversation . . . and I was told that I was chosen." Hammer said that in December, a five-member task force performed an audit of the NEH, creating a briefing book and looking into possible candidates for the chairpersonship. Hammer said the name Vartan Gregorian, the current Brown University president and a once-provost of the University, came up often. Gregorian said last week that when he was approached about the job, he turned it down. And when he was asked for his recommendation, he mentioned Hackney. "That's the first time his name came up, as far as I know," Hammer said. "It could've come up earlier." Gregorian said Hackney "is emminently suited for this position." "He's an eminent historian, judicious in temperament and a very fair man," Gregorian said. "So I think he's suited to handle a national post. He'd be a great leader." Hackney said Gregorian was but one of the four people who nominated him. Hackney would not say who the other three were, but Hammer said another person who nominated Hackney was Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.). David Stone, Wofford's spokesperson, said Wofford -- who wrote letters and made phone calls on Hackney's behalf -- was "a strong advocate" of Hackney's nomination. "As Pennsylvania's democratic senator and one with a very long and strong relationship with both Bill Clinton and Sheldon Hackney, he was in a good position to move this nomination along," Stone said. Hammer said the whole process did got off to a slow start, but moved quickly once Hackney expressed his interest. "The fact is that nothing happens immediately," Hammer said. "I think it happened very fast once he decided that he was genuinely interested." Hammer and Hackney agreed that Clinton attempted to name four cultural posts at the same time -- the NEH, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute for Museum Services and the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities -- but once speculation mounted in the media, the pressure grew for Clinton to nominate Hackney. Hammer said the White House called him in February and asked what his constituency of 76 agencies thought of Hackney. "We had considerable support for the nomination," he said. "He very much met the kind of profile that we were looking for and we were pleased to say that we could support him." Hackney said that at one point during the search, when he talked to a fellow university president close to the Clinton Administration, he asked about the search. "He said your name is in the pool, but the people doing the search think you're not interested," Hackney said. "I said I think I may be interested. He told me that he would make sure that they knew that and he did." Hackney said that as the media announced the ever-shrinking candidate pool, he began receiving calls from organizations in the humanities world -- still without a call from the White House. "I began to hear from them saying we hope you're interested because we think you'd be good," Hackney said. "The White House, I suppose, was trying to find out what the people in the humanities world thought about me. I knew my name was on a relatively short list [at that time]." Hackney said he has one more "hoop" to go through before his nomination goes before the Senate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation must conduct an investigation into his background. "I'm not there yet, I really don't want to be presumptuous about this," he said. Gary Nash, a history professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who also made short lists for the position, said Hackney is qualified for the job. "You throw your hat in the ring for those things and you take your chances," he said last week. "I'm delighted with his appointment. I know it may not be the best thing for Penn, but I think it's wonderful for the National Endowment."

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