UNIVERSITY NARROWS PROVOST SEARCH TO THREE CANDIDATES

A Southeast Missouri State University committee has narrowed the search for a provost from five finalists to three.

The search committee recommended Dr. Jane Stephens, Dr. Stephen Bowen and Dr. W. Hubert Keen.

A former Southeast history professor, Stephens is executive vice chancellor at the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg.

Bowen is vice provost for instruction at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich.

Keen is special assistant to the system provost for the State University of New York at Albany.

The search committee recommended the three candidates to Southeast President Dr. Ken Dobbins this week.

Dobbins announced the three finalists Friday.

"They did a super job," Dobbins said of the search committee.

Dobbins met with the search committee on March 1 following two weeks of on-campus visits by the five candidates.

Dobbins said the search committee members offered "great insights" after interviewing and visiting with the candidates.

"I think they felt they really knew all five candidates," said Dobbins.

The search committee felt the three recommended candidates "would be the best fit for the university," he said.

Dobbins said he is in process of reading all the comments he has received from faculty and staff about the provost candidates.

The university president said he and the executive staff plan to make additional reference checks concerning the three finalists.

Dobbins hopes to make a final recommendation to the Board of Regents on March 24. Southeast wants to have a new provost in place by July 1 at the latest.

The university is seeking to replace Dr. Charles Kupchella, who resigned last June to accept a position as president of the University of North Dakota. Dr. Dennis Holt has been serving as interim provost this academic year.