Burr Says Announcement of a President Not Due Until January 4, Maybe Later

The first day after Christmas vacation has been set as the earliest possible date for the announcement of the next president of Harvard University.

Last week the Corporation said that it will not make its announcement during the Christmas holidays. Yesterday, Francis H. Burr '35, Senior Fellow of the Corporation, said there was a "99.9 per cent chance" there will be no decision this month.

"I simply do not see how we can do it. But I say 99 per cent chance because there could be something I haven't counted on," he said.

Croporation Must Choose

Before the next president is announced, the five-man Corporation must choose its own nominee, and then go to the executive committee of the Board of Overseers and finally to a full meeting of the Overseers which traditionally ratifies the Corporation decision.

The Overseers delegated the responsibility for reviewing potential candidates to their executive committee last spring, and approval for the Corporation choice is considered a formality. Still it will take time, Burr said, to give the chosen one a chance to decide if he wants the job and to convene the two Overseers groups, composed almost exclusively of businessmen and public officials.

No Formal Consultations

The stage of formal consultation with student and faculty committees has ended, Burr added. There will be no more meetings with the Faculty Council, Committee on Governance, or other administrative groups, but individual faculty members will still be asked for comments "right up to the final minute," Burr said.

"We are not going underground." he emphasized yesterday. "We're willing to talk to anyone who has come to us expressing his own interest in the decision. But we're reluctant to add any names at this point because, after all, we're not going to try to spring a new man on everyone and go through the whole ball of wax-with group discussions and everything-again."

Harvard's Loss, Their Gain

Burr noted the meteoric rise of some of the people on the list of 23 finalists in the last few weeks. "We're putting some people into college presidencies just by listing them on our list of candidates," he said wryly. "I think we can now add them to our alumni contributions list too."

The latest of the candidates to fall into a new job is William H. Danforth, last week gamed Ohancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.