Two of the finalists for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock chancellor's position are also in the running for a similar job at an Illinois university.
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville has named four finalists -- including Cheryl Lovell, special adviser to the chancellor and to the chief academic officer of the Colorado State University System, and Andrew Rogerson, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Sonoma State University in California -- for a chancellor position at that campus in April, according to the university's website.
The two were named last week as finalists in UALR's search, along with Mark Rudin, the vice president for research and economic development at Boise State University.
A timeline on the Southern Illinois website shows the university board will select a new leader this month.
The board will not make a decision on a new chancellor during a meeting Thursday, said Doug McIlhagga, executive director of the university's marketing and communications office.
UALR's chancellor search committee chairman, Bob Denman, said he wasn't concerned about the other universities courting the finalists.
"Probably most all of the folks that we've talked to -- certainly the ones we've talked to in Dallas -- are all generally in other searches," he said.
"That is not unusual at all. Clearly, other institutions see in them the same things we saw in them."
UALR search committee members went to the Dallas-Fort Worth area last month to talk to some of the 18 applicants in private meetings.
Later, University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt selected finalists based on committee recommendations.
The committee has declined to identify names of the applicants who traveled to Texas.
The UA System is working with a Florida-based search firm, Greenwood/Asher & Associates. The cost is up to $155,000.
The three UALR finalists are vying for the position that will soon be vacated by Joel Anderson, 74, who is stepping away from his $219,406 a year post at the end of June.
The committee hopes to have a new chancellor in place by that time and is on track to do so.
The University of Arkansas System trustees, who will ultimately hire the new leader, is meeting later this month in De Queen.
UALR finalists who are in other universities' searches only affirms what the 17-member search committee in Little Rock decided, he added.
Lovell and Rogerson are both set to come to the UALR campus for interviews next week.
Rogerson is scheduled to visit May 11-12, and Lovell on May 12-13, and Rudin on May 9-10.
The university will release schedules for each candidate's on-campus interviews later this week.
"As a committee, you don't want to lose anybody out of the pool because they took another position," Denman said.
"But that is a reality. Your top candidates are going to be top candidates at another location."
Metro on 05/03/2016