IU provost may leave University for Minn.

IU may lose its provost.

Karen Hanson, provost and executive vice president, is a final candidate senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Minnesota.

Hanson, who was named provost at IU in 2007, is one of four candidates for the U of M job. If selected, she would begin working at U of M in Minneapolis-St. Paul in early January 2012, leaving IU without a provost and the Bloomington campus without its primary administrative leadership.

She will be in Minneapolis today to meet with “campus stakeholders” and participate in a public forum on campus.

Hanson graduated from U of M in 1970 with a degree in philosophy and mathematics, one of the factors that set her apart from other candidates, said Tim Mulcahy, U of M’s vice president for research and the chairman of the provost search committee.

The committee began looking for a successor to current Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Tom Sullivan early in the summer after he announced he planned to retire at the end of the calendar year.

IU officials have declined to comment at this stage of the process.

“Provost Hanson came to our attention as having been nominated by someone else,” Mulcahy said. “She took some time and consideration.”

Ultimately, though, Hanson continued with the process and became part of the short list, which includes Robert Elde, dean of the U of M College of Biological Sciences, Allen Levine, dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at U of M and Gary Wihl, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Washington University.

Mulcahy said all the remaining candidates fulfill the basic requirements the committee is looking for in a new provost, including proven leadership ability and a track record of solving problems in higher education.

He said Hanson would bring other qualities to the office if she were selected.
“Her background complements our president’s background,” Mulcahy said. “She rose up through the arts and humanities, and he is a scientist.”

Mulcahy also said Hanson has a notable record in scholarship and education administration at IU.

“She was a really outstanding match,” he said.