“I believe that the campus will consider this a strong group of candidates,” said Terry Curry, associate provost and associate vice president for academic human resources.

The position is critical to MSU because the university is a national leader among public universities in study abroad, and has one of the largest contingents of international students. MSU’s research efforts also are global in nature, Curry said.

“The entire campus is a constituency of the ISP dean … So much of our identity now as a campus is linked to who we are internationally that finding the right leadership is important to all of us,” Acting Provost June Youatt said during a recent Steering Committee meeting.

The candidates will visit campus throughout the next few weeks to meet with faculty and administrators while getting a feel for the campus and holding public forums.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and honored to be on the short list, and I’m excited to visit campus next week,” Beck said.

She will be the first to visit campus and her public forum will be held on Oct. 22 in the board room on the fourth floor of the Administration Building.

The other two candidates did not respond to interview requests.

The search committee reviewed almost 100 applications. The final three are very experienced and come from diverse backgrounds, said Anne Ferguson, the search committee chair, professor of anthropology and interim associate dean.

The search for a new dean began late this spring after Jeffrey Riedinger took a position at the University of Washington.