The six-month search for a new dean of the School of Fine Arts at Kansas University has run into a hurdle: The candidates who were brought to campus this month aren’t a good fit for the university.

John Gaunt, dean of the School of Architecture and chairman of the fine arts dean search committee, said more would be known about a new timetable for the search when an interim dean is announced later this week.

“As the provost said, the search committee had not recommended the hire of the people we’d interviewed,” Gaunt said. “They were terrific people, all very good. It’s a question of the fit.”

The three candidates who came to Lawrence were Wade Hobgood, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville; William Vernon May, dean of the College of Music at Baylor; and Aaron Horne, former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Winston-Salem State University.

KU Provost Richard Lariviere sent an e-mail to fine arts faculty and others last week saying he was dissatisfied with the search and intended to restart it with an interim dean assuming the role of dean when Steve Hedden leaves the position later this year. The search was removed from the provost office’s Web site this week.

Gaunt said the primary concern is finding the right person for the job – and not just someone who may be capable of filling the job.

“The worst thing you can do in a search is hire someone that doesn’t truly work out,” Gaunt said. “That’s what a failed search is.”

A timeline for the new search was not available Monday, as the provost was out of the office and not available for comment.

Gaunt said he was hopeful a new search would succeed where the previous search had not.