The final candidate for Kansas University’s provost position is a former provost at Texas A&M University.
Jeffrey S. Vitter is currently a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M in College Station. He has also been the dean of the College of Sciences at Purdue University.
He will make a short presentation to the university community and the public at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Bruckmiller and McGee rooms in the Adams Alumni Center. A question-and-answer session and reception will follow.
The program will be streamed live online at www.provost.ku.edu/search/provost.shtml.
Vitter joins Philip McConnaughay, law dean at Pennsylvania State University, and Steve Warren, KU’s vice provost for research and graduate studies, as the three finalists for the position.
Comments
yourworstnightmare 3 years, 9 months ago
Kudos to the search committee for finding two quality outside candidates and probably the most qualified internal candidate.
KU_cynic 3 years, 9 months ago
I presume this will be forthcoming, but I'll ask anyway: What's up with Vitter?
Vitter left Purdue where he was dean to become provost at Texas A&M -- for one year 2008-2009. Coincidental with the appointment of the then-interim-president to president of A&M Vitter apparently stepped down, replaced by an interim provost with a similar academic background in computer science.
The president that left A&M was Elsa Murano. A Google search on her resignation suggests that she was the problem, and that Vitter resigned to distance himself from her and await a second chance like the one KU offers.
What really happened at A&M? It sounds like fodder for an academic farce.
beawolf 3 years, 9 months ago
"What really happened at A&M? "... Does it really matter? I'm sure the search committee has properly vetted this non-issue before he was selected as a finalist.
KU_cynic 3 years, 9 months ago
beawolf:
If I can form the question immediately and then find some vague information on the web with a couple minutes of browsing, it is a question that deserves an answer.
The last search committee we trusted to properly vet a provost candidate gave us Richard LaRiviere. Need I say more?
beawolf 3 years, 9 months ago
The key to your statement is "vague information". Like I said, his past has been vetted. Not sure why you have a bee up your bonnet about Lariviere. He came, he went. He had a decent record and apparently Oregon was impressed enough to lure him there as president.
yourworstnightmare 3 years, 9 months ago
It is a good question why Vitter was provost for but one year. The exit of a president can be the cause of such things, and he is now biding his time.
Lariviere was a good provost. He rubbed many at KU the wrong way, mainly the deadwood do-no-research professors who dominate university governance.
KU_cynic 3 years, 9 months ago
One: I have no beef against Vitter and am intrigued by his background and potential. I merely have voyeuristic curiosity with regard to what happened at A&M with Murano. Sounds like a nasty mix of incompetence, ego, and politics.
Two: Perhaps the mistakes that LaRiviere made at KU resulted in the rubbing off of some sharp edges that will help him be a better leader at Oregon. Personally, I wouldn't bet on it.
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