photo by: Mike Yoder

Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little answers questions and provides an update about KU’s accomplishments and opportunities over the past year during an informal forum Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, at The Commons in Spooner Hall.

As the University of Kansas is recruiting candidates and taking applications for its next chancellor, it’s not the only school looking for a qualified leader right now. For one, fellow Big 12 conference mate Baylor University is advertising for a new CEO. So is the University of Missouri-Columbia. Other farther-away flagship schools seeking leaders include the University of New Mexico and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Those are the biggest names among roughly 20 job listings for presidents or chancellors at four-year institutions currently being advertised in the same online publications that KU’s chancellor job is, or has been. The live listings indicate these application periods are still open, but there are certainly other searches open nationwide in earlier or later stages.

In fact, KU is one of four “significant” president or chancellor searches currently on the plate of KU’s chancellor search consulting firm, according to Krisha Creal, chief of staff for R. William Funk & Associates.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little answers questions and provides an update about KU’s accomplishments and opportunities over the past year during an informal forum Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, at The Commons in Spooner Hall.

“In addition to the University of Kansas, we are nearing completion of presidential searches at the University of Arizona and Auburn University,” she said. “Both of these searches are down to the final candidates. In addition, we are also nearing successful completion of a chancellor search for Rutgers University’s main campus in New Brunswick (N.J.). Finalists have already been determined for that position as well.”

In addition to job information being posted indefinitely online at chancellor.ku.edu/chancellor-search, the KU chancellor position has been advertised online in the following publications, according to Kansas Board of Regents spokeswoman Breeze Richardson: Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Women in Higher Education, Diverse Issues in Higher Education and Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education.

While many of the following schools may not be comparable to KU, here is a list of all four-year institution president and chancellor positions listed this week on the aforementioned publications’ jobs websites:

• Arkansas State University, chancellor

• Baylor University (Texas), president

• Bellevue College (Washington), president

• Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, president

• Bowie State University (Maryland), president

• Carthage College (Wisconsin), president

• City College of New York, president

• Georgia Southwestern State University, president

• Jackson State University (Mississippi), president

• Nevada System of Higher Education, chancellor

• Oberlin College and Conservatory (Ohio), president

• Salem State University (Massachusetts), president

• Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, president

• St. Francis College (New York), president

• University of Alaska Fairbanks, chancellor

• University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, chancellor

• University of the Incarnate Word (Texas), president

• University of Missouri-Columbia, chancellor

• University of Nebraska, Omaha, chancellor

• University of New Mexico, president

• Warren Wilson College (North Carolina), president

The Funk firm and the search committee members have been putting out feelers for a while, and the Board of Regents posted advertisements for the KU chancellor job online starting in December, Richardson said. However, the search formally opened with the Regents’ approval of the chancellor leadership statement in mid-February, and the search committee wants applications in by March 30.

Could candidates for KU’s top job also be applying at these other schools? Maybe, but don’t hold your breath for a definitive answer on that. Since the Regents opted for a closed search they will not be publicly announcing any candidates at any step in the process.

Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, left, and interim Kansas State University President Richard Myers, right.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.