The committee searching for a candidate to fill St. Thomas’ provost position hopes to narrow down applicants by December, according to Terence Langan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and provost search committee member.

After Executive Vice President and Provost Susan Huber announced her retirement in May, effective June 30, 2014, President Julie Sullivan asked Huber to assume the provost duties until a search committee can find someone to fill the job.

St. Thomas has not used a provost model in a decade. After former Provost Judith Dwyer left the university in 2003, the position was left vacant until this summer when Huber assumed the provost duties.

“Take a school, any school and look at their organization structure. You’ll find the things that are happening here are very common,” Sullivan said.

The provost is responsible for heading almost all the aspects of university operation- academic and non-academic. Langan described the position as an overall coordinator between the all of the university’s departments.

“For example, the people in the Admissions department didn’t have a way to coordinate with Academic Counseling before. There was no person overseeing both,” Langan said. “I think it’s a good move to move to this provost model so that you have a single set of eyes looking over all the operations (and) the tie-ins between all of those operations.”

The university hired Korn/Ferry International, a global talent search company, to assist the St. Thomas committee with publicizing the job opening and attracting candidates throughout the fall. Langan said Korn/Ferry is developing an advertisement, and the committee hopes to have a group of serious candidates to consider by December.

If all goes well, Langan said a finalist will visit St. Thomas in February, and the new provost could be announced as early as March.

Undergraduate Student Government President Jenna Johnson is the only undergraduate student serving on the search committee. Johnson said most of the information regarding the search is confidential for the candidates’ privacy, but she is eager to serve the St. Thomas community.

“I’m excited to be the voice for the students in this matter,” Johnson said.

Langan said finding a provost who will complement Sullivan is an important part to the search.

“Personally, I’m looking for someone who can work well with our new president,” Langan said. “I look at this as a two-part process. We did a good job hiring the president in the first part, and now we need to finish the job.”

Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.