University of Virginia Library

Harvard List Drops
President Shannon

By Peter Shea
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The Harvard Corporation has dropped
Edgar Shannon from the list of persons
being considered as possible replacements
for Nathan Pusey, retiring President of
Harvard University.

Mr. Shannon had been included
among 69 candidates for the position but
was cut from the list earlier this week.
The Harvard Crimson, which managed to
get a copy of the secret list on
Wednesday, reports that the number of
persons still being considered has been
pared to 23.

Mr. Shannon, President of the
University, had been one of 12 current
university and college presidents under
consideration for the Harvard presidency. All
but two of those candidates, Clifford Warden,
President of Michigan State, and Robert
Fleming, President of the University of
Michigan, have been cut from the list along
with Mr. Shannon.

Sources at The Crimson reiterated their
belief that the eventual successor to President
Pusey will be a Harvard insider. Of the 23
persons still under consideration, almost half
are currently employed by the university in
academic roles.

According to The Crimson, the Harvard
Corporation, the university's board of trustees,
desires to replace Mr. Pusey with someone who
is "first and foremost an academic." Persons
such as Elliot Richardson and John Gardner,
therefore, are not being considered as was
previously rumored.

Among those outsiders still being considered
by the Corporation is Alexander Heard, former
President of Vanderbilt University, who is
currently an adviser to President Nixon.

Notably absent from the list was S. I.
Hayakawa, President of San Francisco State
College. Despite the fact that Mr. Hayakawa
was the most popular choice in a poll of alumni
taken earlier this year, he has apparently never
been seriously considered for the post.

Harvard University has a mandatory
retirement age of 66 and the fiery semanticist,
who is 64 years old, is too close to the age limit
to make his appointment practical, The
Crimson said.

The Crimson, the Independent student
newspaper of Harvard University, said that the
list which it has obtained is a secret list which
has been circulated to the senior faculty
members of the university to determine their
reaction.