Kansas University’s last liberal arts dean finalist highlighted the importance of raising student graduation rates and finding new sources of funding Thursday at a public forum.

A political scientist, Matthew C. Moen worked at the University of Maine, rising to the level of department chair, before leaving in 2002 to his current position as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Dakota.

Though he said some may be concerned about his lack of research at an Association of American Universities school, Moen pointed out he’s written five books and written several articles, and helped raise the level of research done at South Dakota, though that figure still is a fraction of the research done at KU.

As dean, Moen said he would bring a fundraising element to the position, taking an active role with alumni interested in helping the university. “It’s one of the chancellor’s priorities, and it needs to be one for the college,” Moen said.

He is competing for the position with Susan Carlson, associate provost of faculty advancement and diversity at Iowa State University; Joseph C. Shields, chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at Ohio University; and Greg Simpson, KU’s interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.