photo by: Carter Gaskins

University of Kansas interim Provost Carl Lejuez speaks during a town hall forum about budget cuts on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Eaton Hall on campus.

The current interim provost at the University of Kansas will soon present his candidacy for the permanent position.

Carl Lejuez, who has been serving as the university’s interim provost and executive vice chancellor since spring of 2018, will deliver a public presentation at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, in the Big 12 Room of the Kansas Union, KU announced Tuesday morning. A reception will follow from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room at the union.

The presentation will be livestreamed and available online afterward at provostsearch.ku.edu.

Before taking on the interim position, Lejuez served as dean of KU’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. As interim provost, he helped implement a $20 million budget cut and has helped develop a new budget model.

In February, Lejuez told the Journal-World that he would resume his role as CLAS dean if someone else was chosen as KU’s permanent provost. Two professors within the college have served as interim dean since Lejuez’s move to the provost’s office, and the university has said it will not resolve that vacancy until after a permanent provost was hired.

Lejuez is the second of four candidates who will present before the campus community as part of the search process. The first candidate, University of Wisconsin Law School Dean Margaret Raymond, was scheduled to present at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The final two candidates will be announced 48 hours in advance of their campus visits on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and Thursday, Nov. 7.

KU has been without a permanent provost — the No. 2 leadership role at KU — since May 2018, when former provost Neeli Bendapudi left to become president of the University of Louisville.

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