Harvard's search for a new Director of Athletics has officially begun with advertisements running in various publications this month.

The job description--published in recent issues of the NCAA News, the Chornicle of Higher Education, and the Harvard alumni newsletter News and Views--solicits applicants who have "significant management skills ... strong communications skills [and] an outstanding record of leadership and achievement" to replace outgoing Athletic Director William J. Cleary, Jr. '56.

Jack P. Reardon '60, the executive director of the Alumni Association and the man who Cleary succeeded as Athletic Director in 1990, will chair a search committee composed of University administrators, Faculty members.

No coaches or other current administrators of the Athletic Department will serve on the committee.

Joining Reardon on the search committee is Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman '67, Professor John E. Dowling '57, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67, former University Provost Jerry R. Green, Professor Barbara Gross, Associate Dean of the Faculty Nancy L. Maull, and Joseph O'Donnell.

None of the search committee members have any recent experience in working within the Athletic Department, though Dowling, Green, and Gross have prior experience on the Faculty Committee on Undergradute Athletics and Fitzsimmons is a former goalkeeper for the hockey team.

"I don't know exactly how search committees have been set up in the past, but what was most important this time was to be open to all the thoughts and ideas of the [Athletic] Department" Reardon said.

Reardon and members of the search committee recently met with 35 staffers of the Athletic Department in an open forum to air suggestions and ideas regarding the search.