When the first Kansas University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean candidate packed the Kansas Union’s Centennial Room — standing room only, even after more chairs were brought in — for his public presentation, it became apparent that the ensuing presentations would need to move to bigger rooms.

That was a good problem to have, said dean search committee chairwoman and English professor Marta Caminero-Santangelo.

“I was both surprised and pleased by the turnout at the open forum presentations,” she said. “There has been a great deal of response and feedback.”

This week, the search committee will meet to review the feedback it received on the four candidates who visited campus and gave presentations in recent weeks, Caminero-Santangelo said. The committee will then compile a report to submit to the provost, Jeff Vitter.

Caminero-Santangelo said she could not say when a hire will be made, as the decision lies with the provost. She said, especially given the turnout for the presentations, everyone involved will want to make sure to review all the feedback carefully.

Interdisciplinary collaboration, international students, online courses and faculty diversity were among common themes brought up by the four candidates, who were asked to give presentations tackling the theme “21st Century Challenges to Liberal Arts and Sciences (and how KU will address them).”

The following four candidates visited campus and presented the last week of August and first week of September:

Walter Hawthorne

• Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of the Department of History at Michigan State University.

Mark P. Jones

• Mark P. Jones, professor of political science and the Jamail chair in Latin American studies at Rice University.

Carl Lejuez

• Carl Lejuez, professor of psychology and associate dean of research for the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at University of Maryland-College Park.

Luis Casian

• Luis Casian, professor and chair of the Department of Math at The Ohio State University.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, or CLAS, is a huge part of KU.

It enrolls 15,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students and employs more than 600 faculty, according to KU. CLAS is home to 53 academic departments and programs, including humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, math, arts and languages.

The new dean will replace Danny Anderson, who left KU this spring to become president of Trinity University in San Antonio.