Academic officials can live in a small world.
Brian Foster, a candidate for provost at MSU, also is a candidate for the same post at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
And Janie Fouke, dean of the MSU College of Engineering, is another of the three candidates for the Missouri job.
Foster, the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico, visits MSU today and will spend April 24-26 at Missouri.
He said the campus visits will play a key role in his decision if both jobs are offered to him.
"I guess I would go where I would find the best fit and make the best impact," Foster said, adding he also is being considered at other schools. "The reality is that in these kind of interviews, it is a mutual process. The university needs to see it as a fit, and the candidate needs to see it as a fit.
"Nobody's a winner if it doesn't work both ways."
MSU's provost search and rating committee began the national search for a new provost last year. The committee selected five candidates - all from out-of-state schools - from a pool of about 50 applicants.
The committee will give its opinion to the MSU Board of Trustees, which will select the next provost at its June meeting.
Although she was nominated to be considered as provost at MSU, Fouke said she didn't accept the nomination.
"It's always a matter of match - what's the opportunity of a certain place at a certain time and what you're good at," Fouke said. "At this point in time and with my skills set at this point, I didn't think it would be a good match. You need different things at different opportunities in your career."
At MSU, some people from within the university who were nominated chose not to be considered, said Lynne Goldstein, chairwoman of the provost search and rating committee.
"A lot of people who were nominated felt it was important to get someone outside because the president was internal," Goldstein said. "There wasn't necessarily a push, but a lot of people nominated others from outside the university. They felt we needed fresh thinking and something new."
Fouke said she was nominated for the position in Missouri by colleagues. She said she was not looking for a new job, but that she does meet with search committees occasionally.
"The nomination is usually what triggers you to learn about the opportunity," Fouke said. "This group made a convincing argument that there's a good match between my skills and the opportunities at Missouri."
