Mr. Gantner, the director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, was chosen after a four-month search.

But the shortage of priests is so severe that a four-month search for a new president was fruitless.

The transaction, if it is approved by regulators, would conclude a four-month search by Columbia for a buyer.

Word that Judge Sessions was being considered comes after an often frustrating four-month search in which a number of the Administration's choices said they were not interested.

The appointment to this newly created position comes after a four-month search and a review of some 130 performing arts institutions.

After a four-month search, the board of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center announced this week that it had appointed a new president and chief executive.

Her appointment yesterday ended a four-month nationwide search.

Ms. Oleniczak was chosen after a four-month search that attracted 250 candidates.

The four-month search for a new chancellor has been complicated by the debate in the last two weeks over who should control the board.

"It's been a slow, painstaking process," one job hunter, David Diamond, 42, said of his four-month search for work since the textile company he worked for closed.