KU professor not hired for dean job at Marquette

Posted by Matt Erickson February 20, 2013 at 3:50 p.m.

We told you last month that KU political science professor Erik Herron was up for a top job at Marquette University in Milwaukee. In the interest of not leaving you hanging, here's the conclusion to that story: Herron was not hired.

The university announced yesterday that Richard Holz, currently an associate dean at Loyola University Chicago, will be the new dean of its College of Arts and Sciences. Herron, who is also an associate chair of the political science department and is on a two-year leave while he works for the National Science Foundation, was one of four finalists for the job.

Holz was the only one of the four who works currently in a dean position, the Marquette student newspaper reports.

And here's something I did not notice at the time I wrote about this last month: This particular job opening has quite an unusual history.

Holz will be the first permanent dean for the Marquette College of Arts and Sciences since 2007. There have been two failed searches since then, the student paper reports.

Back in 2010, Marquette offered the job to Jodi O'Brien, a professor at Seattle University, but then rescinded the offer. The university said some of her writings clashed with the university's Catholic identity. O'Brien, who is openly gay, has published scholarly work on gender and sexual orientation. The episode apparently caused a bit of a kerfuffle on the campus, and the university reached a settlement with O'Brien later on.

We're sure you're resting easy knowing the conclusion to this story. Give us ideas for more stories to start and then finish by sending your KU news tips to merickson@ljworld.com.