NEW YORK -- Harvey Klein, the William S. Paley Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and physician to recent Cornell presidents, offered a prescription to the Cornell Presidential Search Subcommittee on Sept. 7: "Figure out what you really want before you go fishing."

Klein gave this advice to a subcommittee of Cornell's Presidential Search Committee, which was holding an open meeting at WCMC, seeking the input of faculty, staff and students to help guide the search for a new president to succeed Jeffrey S. Lehman.

An audience of 30 urged that the ideal candidate be prepared to foster the intercampus New Life Sciences Initiative; to understand the scope, diversity and missions of the university, including the medical college; and demonstrate both leadership abilities and a firm commitment to academics.

Comments from the audience were fielded by Antonio M. Gotto Jr., dean of WCMC, search committee members Paul Gould and Myra Hart, and committee adviser Stephen Weiss.

Fred Maxfield, chair of the Department of Biochemistry, said the collaborations between the New York City and Ithaca campuses, long stymied by distance and other obstacles, have only recently taken root through the efforts of Lehman as Cornell allocated increased funds for joint studies. "My fear is that [the collaborations] will be derailed by a turnover in the presidency," he said.

David Hajjar, professor of biochemistry and pathology and dean of the Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, reminded the subcommittee that Lehman appointed a scientific advisory committee earlier this year to harness the synergy and foster collaborative research between the campuses, after identifying areas of mutual interest such as chemical biology, infectious disease and biomedical engineering. "A cornerstone of the new president is being able to work with us, and Gotto and Provost [Biddy] Martin, to get the initiatives done," he said.

He expressed the hope that the new president would have a background in life sciences in order to ensure his or her commitment to cross-campus research. The next 10 years, he noted, are pivotal for the campuses to build on their alliances and for securing Cornell a "top five" ranking in research and education.

Committee members emphasized that candidates would be mindful of the university's commitment to life sciences and would be required to support efforts to strengthen the link between the two campuses.

Several audience members said the Cornell presidency entails so many responsibilities that candidates must have a proven ability to focus on priorities and appoint capable administrators. "It's crucial that anyone who takes the job have a track record with a scope comparable to the current job," such as a provost or president title, said Ralph Nachman, chair of the Department of Medicine.

Alvin Mushlin, chair of the Department of Public Health, stressed the importance of an academic sensibility, beyond leadership skills and administrative savvy, given the university's prestige and prominence in a vast number of fields.

"It's critically important to look for someone who has achieved a measure of success as an academic," he said.

Jack D. Barchas, psychiatrist in chief, cautioned the committee not to be distracted by complexity and expressed the hope that in the search process "we don't get too desirous of having somebody who has run something very large. It's whether or not they're capable of having a vision, bringing out the best in people and making good selections. And I would hope that you would emphasize those particular qualities in this very important search."

Klein urged the committee to stay focused on triage. "It's a relatively small field out there, and I think the reason for it is that we expect the president to do so much; to be a fund-raiser, to travel around massaging donors, to be an intellectual leader, to deal with the faculty in both the public and private parts of the university," he said. "It's an impossible job description, and I think one of things the committee ought to do is figure out what is the most important part of this job and look at that."