Kansas University Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Jeff Vitter is pictured in this 2010 file photo.

Kansas University Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Jeff Vitter is one of three finalists for the position of chancellor at the University of Arkansas.

The University of Arkansas named the finalists in a news release Monday, and all three are scheduled to visit the Fayetteville campus and give public presentations within the next two weeks.

Vitter’s visit is scheduled for Oct. 14-15.

Vitter, a New Orleans native, has been KU’s provost for five years and is credited with spearheading the university’s 2012-2017 strategic plan, Bold Aspirations. He said he was contacted by a search firm and conversations with Arkansas’ chancellor search committee followed.

Vitter said he remains committed and focused on KU’s initiatives but called the chancellor’s job at Arkansas a “very special opportunity.”

“It’s really an opportunity to make a huge impact on the future vitality of the state, as well as the nation, and higher education needs to play that leading role for the good of our society,” Vitter said.

“Arkansas is a great up-and-coming university. Having grown up in the deep south, that’s a great attraction to me, as well.”

Vitter noted that Arkansas is home to multiple Fortune 500 companies’ headquarters and that hundreds more have satellite presences in the state. He said the university is looking to implement a strategic plan, which he’s had experience crafting at KU and other universities.

Vitter called Bold Aspirations a “game-changer” for KU. He said he was gratified by the progress so far — including in the areas of research, curriculum and student recruitment — and that the plan should have KU on a good trajectory for the future.

One of the other three University of Arkansas chancellor finalists is K-State Provost and Senior Vice President April Mason, who will visit the University of Arkansas campus Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the University of Arkansas. The third finalist is Joseph E. Steinmetz, executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University.

The theme of each candidate’s public talk will be “Moving the Needle: Thoughts on Taking the University of Arkansas Into the Future.”

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that neither Mason nor Vitter was included on a list of 15 applicants for the job released in August by the University of Arkansas, or in a response to a public disclosure request submitted Sept. 18. University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt selected the finalists from a group of seven people interviewed Sept. 25 in Dallas by a search committee, the newspaper reported.

The last University of Arkansas chancellor, David Gearhart, retired effective in July. Dan Ferritor is interim chancellor.

At KU, Vitter’s academic appointment is as a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

Previously he was provost and executive vice president at Texas A&M University; and dean of the College of Science and professor of computer science at Purdue University, according to his curriculum vitae. He also was a professor at Duke University and Brown University.

Vitter got his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, his doctorate from Stanford University and an MBA from Duke University.