Academia is buzzing with speculation about who will be the next president of Harvard University.
One week after Harvard President Lawrence Summers announced his decision to resign at the end of the academic year, no word has come from Harvard administrators about who is in the running to take over his job.
When Harvard last conducted a presidential search five years ago, Penn President Amy Gutmann, a Harvard alumna, was one of the leading contenders.
It's unknown whether she will make the shortlist again, but Gutmann said that has no intention of leaving Penn anytime soon.
"I love what I'm doing at Penn and I plan to be here for the foreseeable future," Gutmann said.
Jerry Murphy -- a visiting Education professor at Penn who formerly served as dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education -- said that Gutmann is "highly regarded," but that he has "no way of knowing what [Harvard is] likely to do."
Until Harvard chooses a new permanent president, Summers' predecessor Derek Bok -- who served as president from 1971 to 1991 -- will lead the university.
Presidential spokesman John Longbrake said in an e-mail interview that the Harvard Corporation, the university's top decision-making body, will be responsible for conducting the search but that no information is available yet about the specifics of the process.
Although the corporation has yet to release a list of nominees or a set of criteria for the position, some Harvard faculty members already have a clear idea of what they would like to see in their next president.
Harvard German professor Judith Ryan -- who was planning to introduce a no-confidence resolution against Summers at the time he announced his resignation -- said she hopes the candidate list will be diverse, including both men and women and also "people of many different persuasions."
Ryan said that she believes Bok is "exactly the person we need" until a permanent president takes office. She cited Bok's past experience as Harvard's president, his knowledge of higher-education issues and his savvy interpersonal skills.
Summers' stormy relationship with the Harvard faculty and the negative attention he received for comments about women in science were believed to be two of the main reasons behind his decision to step down.
Following the end of this school year, Summers plans to spend a year on sabbatical before returning to Harvard as an appointed university professor, the highest teaching position at Harvard, according to a statement from the corporation.
Murphy also said that he didn't think that the corporation would have trouble finding qualified candidates.
"They will probably look for somebody who, like President Summers, took bold action, but somebody who has more of a velvet glove" in terms of leadership style, he said.
In addition to improving relations with the faculty, some students hope the new president will become more involved with the rest of the Harvard community as well.
Harvard junior Naabia Ofosu-Amaah said that she hopes "to see increased rapport with the undergraduate student body" in Summers' successor.
