Donald Nieman said he was perfectly happy with his current job as dean of Bowling Green State University’s College of Arts and Sciences and not desperate for a new one.

“I have applied for one job, and this is it,” Nieman told members of Kansas University’s faculty Monday. He is the third candidate for dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to visit KU’s campus. A fourth candidate is expected to visit Wednesday. Nieman, an Iowa native, was a faculty member at Kansas State University in 1974-89. After stints at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and at Clemson University in South Carolina, the professor moved to Bowling Green, in Ohio, to chair the history department. He has been dean of the college since 2000.

Nieman said he was attracted to KU because of the strong loyalty many have for the institution as well as the school’s quality. He also has close family in the Kansas City area.

Nieman met with faculty Monday at the Kansas Union, where he talked about the key activities and traits of a successful dean. He said it was important to think strategically, to understand institutional cultures and to focus on things consistent with the university’s mission. He said faculty recruitment and mentoring were important. “No institution will be better than its faculty,” he said.

A specialist in U.S. constitutional and legal history, civil rights policy, and the Civil War and Reconstruction, Nieman has authored or edited six books.

Others who have interviewed at KU are Robert Frank, interim dean of the Graduate School at the University of Cincinnati, and Joseph Steinmetz, Indiana University’s executive associate dean of arts and sciences. A fourth candidate, whose name won’t be disclosed by KU until today, will be available from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Big 12 Room of the Kansas Union.