Kent State University is looking for a new provost and it’s looking in Marquette Hall for a candidate.

Provost Walter Harris Jr. is one of four candidates in the running for the Ohio university’s position, The Daily Kent Stater reported Tuesday.

Requests for comment from Harris were not returned as of Tuesday afternoon.

James Guadino, dean of the College of Communication and Information at Kent State, is chairman of the university’s search committee. He told the Daily Kent Stater that all the candidates are qualified to fill the position.

The university hopes to have a recommendation on a finalist by Feb. 15.

“They each match the needs and culture of Kent State particularly well,” Guadino said.

In an e-mail interview with the Kent State newspaper, Harris said that he likes providing leadership to academic institutions and thinks he can help to improve Kent State and make it more successful.

He said his proudest moment at Loyola has been the controversial “Pathways” plan.

“In post-Katrina New Orleans, I would say my greatest accomplishment, which I believe will withstand the test of time, is the major restructuring of the university to face its new realities and to keep it a strong, vibrant institution for many years to come,” he wrote.

If Harris was recommended for the job and accepted, he would leave the university amid controversy, much the same as when he came to Loyola in 2003.

When the Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., former university president, announced Harris as the new provost, some faculty voiced discontent about the decision.

Harris was one of five candidates for the position, including Lydia Voigt, sociology professor and chairwoman, whom some faculty thought should have been named provost.

“My strong impression is that the faculty (and staff) are very disappointed, if not outraged, that Lydia Voigt was not selected to be provost, considering she was the consensual choice of the overwhelming people I heard and talked to in our provost search meetings,” Anthony Ladd, associate professor of sociology told The Maroon in February 2003.

Kent State president Lester Lefton, according to the newspaper report, said that the provost must mesh with the unviersity’s community and be able to communicate well.

“If their view of where they want the institution to go differs from my view, it’s not going to work,” Lefton told the newspaper.

Daniel Monteverde can be reached at [email protected].