The three finalists for the open provost position have all made their campus visits, and it is only a matter of time before the search committee announces its selection. While students were given an opportunity to meet with each of these candidates, very few took advantage of the opportunity.

In September, Ed Board had strong words for Cox Dean Al Niemi’s initial decision to neither release the names of the candidates nor let students meet with them. We are relieved and grateful that Dean Niemi and his search committee reconsidered the situation and gave everyone a chance to meet three, very qualified candidates, we only wish students took this opportunity more seriously.

While all three candidates are very qualified for the position and would all do an excellent job, they are three very different men with extremely different plans for the position. We’d like to give our readers an overview of the three candidates, and our take on their strengths and weaknesses.

Thomas Peterson

Peterson is the current dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona. His main background is in chemical engineering. His main focus for SMU would be to improve the amount and types of research the university’s departments perform. He also said he would encourage collaborative research opportunities between divisions and schools of the university. This closely resembles what Meadows Dean José Bowen has been encouraging his divisions to do, and we think these two would work especially well with each other.

In regards to athletics, Peterson said he appreciates the role athletics plays in promoting the university, but said it’s more important that SMU’s athletes have a high graduation rate, and would work to continue that trend.

Paul Ludden

Ludden is currently the dean of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Another engineer, he is an expert in biological nitrogen fixation and microbial carbon metabolism.

Ludden also said he would increase research opportunities, but said he would focus on increasing grant revenue and involving more undergraduate students in research. He also made a point to tell students he was committed to promoting and supporting diversity in the student body and faculty.

Ludden said athletics were not the only way a university could bring alumni back on campus, and suggested athletic games be paired with academic programs to show alumni what the entire university is doing.

Gregory Sterling

Sterling was a finalist during the last provost search, when Robert Blocker was appointed to the provost search. He is currently the executive associate dean for the College of Arts and Letters at Notre Dame. He said he is back in the hunt because he feels SMU is a place that has a lot of potential. His background is in theology, and said SMU is appealing because the university “accepts faith as a legitimate discourse.”

Sterling said increasing funds by increasing the alumni giving rate would help increase research opportunities for SMU. He added that he would also like to see an across the board policy instated making professors who request leaves to do research be required to complete grant and fellowship funding requests.

Any one of these candidates would represent SMU well, but they all have different ideas for improving SMU. The search committee has a difficult task ahead, we’re just glad the community got to be a part of the conversation.