FOUR `INSIDERS' VIE TO FILL BULGER'S JOB INTERIM UMASS PRESIDENT SOUGHT - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

A search committee at the University of Massachusetts has narrowedits search for an interim university president to four insidecandidates, according to a UMass source familiar with the search.President William M. Bulger will step down Sept. 1, and a search fora permanent replacement is expected to take at least a year.

The source said the two leading candidates for the interim postare Jack Wilson, UMass vice president for academic affairs, andMarcellette Williams, who won high marks from trustees for leadingUMass-Amherst through budget cutbacks two years ago as interimchancellor. The pool also includes Stephen Lenhardt, UMass vicepresident for management and fiscal affairs, and David MacKenzie,UMass-Boston vice chancellor for administration and finance.

The source said the UMass presidential search committee gaveserious consideration at a meeting Wednesday to three of the UMasscampus chancellors: John V. Lombardi of Amherst, William Hogan ofLowell, and Aaron Lazare at the Medical Center in Worcester. But thetrustees decided that the campuses would be better off with theirleaders remaining in place.

'Any of the people we're looking at could do the job well,' saidWilliam Giblin, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Trustees also said there was at least one outsider candidate,although two trustees disagreed about whether this person wasWilliams, who is currently on sabbatical from UMass-Amherst. She didnot return a message this week concerning her plans.

The Board of Trustees and others were asked to nominate candidatesto be considered by the trustee committee conducting the search. Theinterim post is expected to last about a year, by which time apermanent successor to Bulger will be in place. The trustee committeewill meet again next week to interview candidates and make theirrecommendations to the full board, which will select a leader by thelast week in August, UMass officials said.

It is not clear whether Williams would accept the job if offered.Her husband moved out of state for a job at another university, andher mother has been ill, the UMass source said.

Williams won strong praise from Bulger and the trustees forholding down the fort at Amherst during a rocky period of budgetcuts, layoffs, program downsizing, and the elimination of severalsports teams. Trustees ultimately tapped Lombardi, a formerUniversity of Florida president, for the Amherst post.

Wilson, meanwhile, has spent the last several years in charge ofUMass Online, which offers courses from the five campuses over theInternet to students and others. The initiative, quite popular withstudents, is close to Bulger's heart.

Wilson was on vacation yesterday, but said in an interview that noone at UMass had discussed the interim presidency with him.

Lenhardt and MacKenzie, who served briefly as interim chancellorat UMass-Boston, are seen as seasoned administrators who would offerstrong financial savvy as the university deals with budget cuts,program consolidations, possible layoffs and further student feehikes.

In the run-up to the search committee's meeting this week, trusteechairwoman Grace K. Fey has been sounding out the nominees, saidGiblin, the board's vice-chairman.

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.