In a memo to the Cornell University faculty Dec. 9, faculty members of the Presidential Search Committee (PSC) provided a short update on the search.

The memo reads: "We're pleased to report that the Search Committee is making good progress and we are most encouraged. Since the Committee last met in Ithaca in October, we have narrowed the field down to less than a handful of excellent candidates. All the candidates still in the running have met with two subgroups of the Search Committee. The entire Search Committee, as well as a small group of faculty and deans, will be meeting with the candidates during the next several weeks. We also will begin the process of checking references and doing background checks on the finalists.

"We can assure you we are working both diligently and thoroughly in our search efforts. However, the Committee cannot predict when it will have a recommendation to make to the entire Board as yet. Please bear with us as we try to be as careful and thorough as we can in finding Cornell's 12th President."

The memo was signed by PSC members Rosemary Avery, professor and chair of the Department of Policy Analysis and Management; Laura Brown, the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English; Elizabeth Earle, professor of plant breeding and genetics; Juris Hartmanis, the W.R. Read Professor Emeritus in Engineering and Computer Science; and Richard Schuler, professor of economics and civil and environmental engineering.

The search committee membership includes representatives from several Cornell constituencies, including trustees, faculty, an undergraduate and a graduate student, employees, Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences faculty, senior administrators and alumni.

For a complete description of all PSC members, visit the search committee Web site at http://www.cornell.edu/presidentsearch/.