Though Tufts continues to conceal the identities of the remaining few candidates in its presidential search, it is now clear that at least one ranking member of the Tufts administration is no longer under consideration.
Vice President of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Mel Bernstein was one of hundreds recommended for the position during the early stages of the process, but never interviewed with the search committee.
"The search committee wanted to look beyond the University," Bernstein said yesterday. "There is a natural interest in seeing if you can help the institution by bringing in people from the outside, and my understanding is that is what they've done."
As is typical of presidential searches, Tufts and Isaacson, Miller, a Boston-based executive search firm, actively recruited candidates from outside the University community. Members of the search committee, however, would not say if they ever completely ruled out hiring a current Tufts employee.
The committee looked for "someone who had the skills to represent the University in operating in a national and international arena... to bring prominence to the University," said one committee representative who was involved in the Bernstein candidacy. These criteria, according to the representative, did not disqualify Tufts administrators.
But according to Bernstein, Tufts seemed committed to bringing a fresh perspective to campus. "You believe that you have a core group here and you can enhance that by bringing in additional talent," he said. "I think the focus has been outside the University."
In total, Tufts interviewed over 20 candidates, from which less than ten remain in contention and are being given follow-up interviews in Boston.
Committee members would not say whether any of the ten work at Tufts, nor whether any Tufts candidates ever reached the interview stage.
"To get an interview you had to be a star among stars," said one committee member. "Getting an interview meant we really wanted you."
Tufts is in the final stages of interviewing, and the search committee hopes to submit a list of no more than four candidates to the executive committee of the Board of Trustees by the end of the academic year. Committee members, however, say they would still consider the application of an outstanding candidate even in this late stage of the search process.
Bernstein says he has no plans to leave Tufts, and said he would consider applying for the position of provost if Sol Gittleman retires. Gittleman has said publicly that he will stay as long as the new president wants, but could leave as early as one year after President John DiBiaggio's departure.
"That would be something that anyone would love to take a look at," Bernstein said of a vacancy in the provost position. The provost, Bernstein added, is someone with a broad view of an institution who wants "the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts."
Though other institutions have approached Bernstein over the years, he said he is focused on his work at Tufts. "If opportunities present themselves, you have to sort of consider them," he said. But, he added, "it's hard to imagine a more interesting job then what I'm doing."
"In part because of the way this institution is structured, I have the kinds of opportunities that people would have as president of other schools," he said.
Bernstein is the head of a project to evaluate Tufts' block schedule and coordinate various simulations of a proposed new scheduling system.
"He has done an excellent job understanding the breadth of intellectual disciplines within the University," said Gregory Crane, a professor of classics. "If you can run Arts and Sciences as an engineer, you may well have passed the most difficult challenge."
Bernstein has also been involved in issues of diversity, and is charged with responding to the findings of the Task Force on Race. "I think he has become more and more invested in the issues of diversity as time has gone by," said Ann Gardulski, an associate professor in the geology department who worked alongside Bernstein on diversity issues.
Bernstein received his BS, MS, and PhD from Columbia University. He was hired by Tufts in 1991, leaving his post as the chancellor of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
