"It's much more nonstop," McLaughlin says. "In an earlier day presidents took the summers off to head off to Europe to do their riding. It now has a relentless pace that exhausts people."

To handle these more frequent searches, universities have developed more efficient search skills.

An important development has been the use of professional corporate search firms, which aid in finding candidates outside the searching institution, as well as candidates from minority backgrounds.

Decisions that were once made in obscurity in smoky back rooms have become increasingly public.

"There was a time when searches were done by a few trustees who would call a friend of theirs in the Harvard Club," McLaughlin says. "As searches became national in scope, the complexity of managing the process meant search firms could help. National search firms can send the message that it's really an open search."

Search firms including Academic Search Consulting Service and A. T. Kearney, Inc. are under contract with a number of colleges and universities that are currently looking for presidents: Bowdoin and Georgetown suggest that visitors to their websites contact A. T. Kearney to provide input.