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Back in 2010, Marquette offered the job to Jodi O'Brien, a professor at Seattle University, but then rescinded the offer.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.

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!