Contenders?

Michael Marsland

View full image

Short-listed

If anyone gets an interview, it will be psych professor Peter Salovey ’86PhD; it’s so obvious that the head of the search committee has confirmed it. Salovey has held three of the biggest titles at Yale: dean of the Graduate School, dean of Yale College, and now provost. Groomed for leadership? Nobody’s more dapper. It can’t hurt that he’s known for his work on emotional intelligence.

Michael Marsland

View full image

Seems logical, but…

To the untrained eye, Vice President Linda Koch Lorimer ’77JD looks like a natural: she’s been Levin’s highly capable right-hand administrator from day one, responsible for getting many of his initiatives off the ground. But Lorimer isn’t an academic, and Yale’s search committee made it clear in an October statement that their choice will be “a scholar and educator.”

Hamilton: Michael Marsland. Richard: Courtesy University of Cambridge.

View full image

Old hands

The presidential ranks of academia are rife with former Yale provosts. Yale might eye chemist Andy Hamilton (left)—though he’s only been running Oxford for three years, so it might be early for him to bow out. Or, if Yale wants an august retiree, it will no doubt mull Alison Richard (right), a primatologist who headed Cambridge, or Susan Hockfield, a neuroscientist who just stepped down from MIT.

Courtesy Duke University

View full image

The silver tongue

The beloved literature professor and celebrated orator Richard Brodhead ’68, ’72PhD, was no doubt a contender for Yale’s presidency 20 years ago. In 2004, he got Duke’s. Whether he might like to switch shades of blue, and whether the search committee wants a seasoned pro or a younger talent, are unknown.

Michael Marsland

View full image

Pipe dream

The New Haven Register raised the name of Hillary Clinton ’73JD—in a headline, no less. But people on campus say: get real. Yale isn’t likely to seek an international celebrity, let alone one who’s spent her life not in academia, but in Democratic politics. Plus, Hill may have other things to do.

Juliana Thomas

View full image

Outsiders

Yale doesn’t have to hire from inside. Here’s one off-campus possibility: Richard Revesz ’83JD, eminent dean of the NYU law school and environmental law expert. Revesz consulted with Yale about its partnership with the National University of Singapore, where his school has a degree program.

Miller: Julie Brown. Others: Michael Marsland.

View full image

Dark horses

When Levin was picked, his administrative résumé amounted to chairing the economics department, plus all of one year as Graduate School dean. He was a genuine long shot. Yale today has many faculty/managers: Yale College dean Mary Miller ’81PhD (left), ex–deputy provost Judith Chevalier ’89 (center), Sterling Professor Ian Shapiro ’83PhD, Global Health Initiative director Betsy Bradley ’96PhD, Graduate School dean Tom Pollard (right)… to name just a few. The search committee will surely think hard about local talent, both the obvious and the less well known.