Harry Woolf, provost of Johns Hopkins University, this week turned down the trustees' offer of the Tufts University presidency. Woolf and Jean Mayer, professor of Nutrition, were a presidential search committee's first two choices for the position.

Harry R. Zane, director of information at Tufts, said yesterday the presidency has not yet been offered to anyone else. The trustees are in the process of choosing another candidate for the position, Zane said, and have indicated "they don't want to be rushed."