One of the people on the shortlist of candidates to succeed Lawrence H. Summers as president of Harvard University gave a Shermanesque reply on Wednesday when asked if she would be interested in the job. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Nannerl O. Keohane, a former president of Wellesley College and Duke University and a current member of Harvard’s governing board, said, “I’m not available. I want to tell people to please stop putting me on the lists of potential candidates.”

She also cited the famous reply by William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War general who some political leaders wanted to draft as a presidential candidate: “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

Ms. Keohane, who is 65, said the job requires “someone with stamina and energy.” People have talked about a number of current university presidents as possible successors, but Ms. Keohane was not often mentioned among them (The Chronicle, March 3). Harvard’s formal search has not yet begun.