A political science professor at KU is up for a top job at Marquette University in Milwaukee, it would appear.

Erik Herron, a professor and associate chair of political science, is one of four finalists to become the dean of Marquette’s College of Arts and Sciences, per the university’s website.

Herron joined the KU faculty in 2001 and has held a number of other administrative jobs, as well. At the moment, he’s actually on a two-year leave through August of this year in Washington, D.C., where he’s a program director for the National Science Foundation.

Marquette, a Jesuit university, has around 12,000 students. The other three candidates are professors from Loyola University Chicago, Boston College and — wait for it — the University of Missouri. Herron is set to appear on the Marquette campus next week.

In contrast to KU, which in the case of public job searches tends to announce the names of candidates one at a time just before they visit, Marquette announced this crop of candidates all at once. I’m not sure what the significance of that might be, but hey, I noticed it.

In case you’d like to follow along with the dean search, the Marquette student newspaper is promising continued coverage.

If you, too, have aspirations of moving up the career ladder, it couldn’t hurt to submit a KU news tip to merickson@ljworld.com. It probably won’t help, either, but it might be fun!