HERSHEY -- During meetings here yesterday, the Trustee Presidential Selection Committee decided how it will proceed in choosing a replacement for retiring University President Bryce Jordan, said committee chair J. Lloyd Huck.

Huck, president of the University Board of Trustees, would not comment on the exact process the selection committee uses. The University Board of Trustees is meeting here today and tomorrow.

Huck said the committee will begin by contacting each of the candidates to determine their interest in the position. Eventually a series of interviews will be held with interested candidates.

The committee is working with the list of seven candidates that was submitted March 1 by the Presidential Search and Screen Committee, which comprises faculty, staff and students. Before its meeting yesterday, the selection committee met with the search and screen committee to discuss the short list of candidates, Huck said.

"They described the process they used and went through candidate by candidate to discuss their qualifications," Huck said.

The search committee reviewed about 160 nominees before narrowing the field to seven. Huck said he is not yet certain when a new president will be named. "There is no deadline that says when we have to get this done," Huck said. However, the selection committee does hope to have a president in place before Jordan's scheduled retirement date of Aug. 31.