The Boston University Board of Trustees will probably not even consider starting a search for BU’s ninth president before June 30, board Vice-Chairman Dexter Dodge said Wednesday.

Dodge also said President ad interim Aram V. Chobanian could continue leading the university for longer than originally expected – perhaps even becoming the full-fledged president.

“Chobanian has the full support of the board, and he may be in longer than just being ad interim,” Dodge said.

Chobanian, a non-voting member of the Trustee committee on governance, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Dodge said beginning the search before the school year ends would distract the BU community.

“The search will not take place during this academic year because it would be disruptive to faculty and students themselves,” he said.

Trustees spokeswoman Nancy Sterling agreed, saying the “appropriate time” for a search to begin is at the end of the academic year, and the search process “is going to take a while,” perhaps stretching to 2005.

“I don’t think anyone is putting any timetable on this,” she said. “This is speculation, but if the search doesn’t start until the end of June, it will probably take a good number of months.”

However, faculty and student involvement will not be precluded because the search will probably continue into next fall, she added.

Dodge said the committee will “go about the search with deliberate speed” but did not say whether it will seek faculty or student input.

Karen Eliot House, Robert Knox and Alan Leventhal, members of the Trustees ad hoc committee on governance, were all unavailable for comment Wednesday. British parliament member Sir Brian Mawhinney, the other person on the Trustees committee, was not contacted Wednesday.

In the meantime, the governance committee is working on hiring an “expert in governance issues” to help it assess issues of board composition and effectiveness, Dodge said.

The group has met twice since Dodge announced its formation on Oct. 31, the same day the Trustees had an emergency meeting to discuss the fate of former President-elect Daniel S. Goldin. The committee plans to have a full meeting Tuesday, Dodge said.

“Everyone will be present at the meeting except for one member, who will be in court, and we will be interviewing various firms that are specialists on governance,” Dodge said.

The committee has considered 18 governance firms, met with eight and hopes to hire at least one at the meeting, Dodge said.

“Once the governance firm has been chosen, the person will work closely with us as a committee,” Dodge said.

A full meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for Jan. 8, but Dodge said it will probably not officially address making a decision on the board’s future until April.

Sterling said the board is not having any governance problems and is “confident that it is excellent.”

STUDENTS, FACULTY WEIGH IN ON SEARCH

Although the search is not set to begin until the summer, faculty and students are already offering suggestions to improve and avoid making another mistake.

To avoid being seen as a “Mickey Mouse institution,” philosophy professor Simon Keller said BU should consider several candidates carefully and involve the faculty.

“The search should be transparent and show that they are using the proper process,” he said.

But international relations associate professor Art Hulnick said forcing the board to be transparent would impede an effective search. However, he agrees that faculty should be somehow involved.

“In my personal opinion, the last search got off track,” he said. “But the search committee will have a hard time if they have to let everyone know what they are thinking.”

College of Communication sophomore Ivy McFadden said she would like the search to be more careful, and she thinks students should be more involved.

“I think that the issues that were brought up when the Trustees decided to change their decision should have been considered earlier,” she said.

However, College of Arts and Sciences senior Tom Endicott said student involvement should be minimal and the new president should have an “obligation to higher education.”

“Having a student involved in the search is a nice gesture, but students don’t know much about running a university,” Endicott said. “I believe that a president of a major university should focus on education, not about funds or bringing in money.”