Now that the four provost candidates have held public sessions in the Chapel, University President Michael Adams must choose the person to replace retiring Provost Arnett Mace.The Red & Black caught up with Adams last week to ask a few questions about the decision.

So what happens next?
We’re drawing from a very strong pool of people. I’m going to have to go sit in a closet somewhere and try to sort it all out and make a decision.

They’re all strong candidates, and it probably won’t be an easy decision.

What are you looking for in a provost?
Somebody with both integrity and a broad range of experience, and I think we’ve got that in all four people.

But this provost probably needs to be even more focused on academics than Arnett [Mace] has been able to do because of the budget. When he started in 2003, there was another downturn. Tim [Burgess, vice president of finance and administration] has now been here long enough that he will shoulder even more of the financial load.

What should the provost’s focus be?
The focus should be more on the academic role, supervision of deans, the next strategic plan and graduate education and research.

Our undergraduates are competitive with just about every part of the country, but I don’t think our graduate program across the board has made as much progress. Part of that’s our fault because we’ve not funded them to the extent we want.

There are hard choices the provost will make, about the fact that you can’t be world class in 100 fields but in 25 or 30, so what are those 30 going to be? What deans and faculty leaders should we hire to get us there?

With Jere Morehead, vice president for instruction, on the list, some have voiced their concern about an internal hire. What kind of feedback are you hearing?
I get comments from everywhere. Donors, state legislators, faculty are all talking to me about it.

We have a lot of talented people here, and if you go through the deans and vice presidents, about half are from outside and half are from inside. But all four provost candidates are excellent and qualified.

What will the new provost do first?
I want the person to have a two or three-month overlap with Dr. Mace, and I’d like whoever it is to go and look at six other schools and provost positions where graduate education is stronger than here and see if we can pick up a few ideas along the way. I did that with Damon Evans [athletic director], and I think he’d say it worked well.

When do you plan to decide?
I don’t want to pin down an exact date, but I hope to have a decision by the end of September. The [provost search] committee has done its part, and soon it’ll be my turn to do mine.