Andrew Bodman, provost at Western Washington University, withdrew from consideration for the position of provost at Ball State University.
President Jo Ann Gora said a candidate withdrawing from a search is not unusual.
"It means we have one fewer candidate to consider," she said. "I don't have any profound statement to make."
Gora said she thought there were some issues going on at Bodman's own campus that influenced his decision to withdraw his name on Sunday.
Bodman could not be reached for comment.
"He didn't exactly tell me why except that he did say it was personal and professional reasons," O'Neal Smitherman, search committee chairman, said. "He did say that his visit to Ball State confirmed his impression that it was a great university and that he regretted having to withdraw."
Even though Bodman has withdrawn, Gora said starting a new search process is not even an option, and she will chose one of the two remaining candidates.
"We need to select one person," she said. "We don't need to select three people. We have two viable candidates and so now my process continues as I check the references on these two individuals."
Gora said she hopes to make a final decision in the next ten days on whether to appoint William Swart, professor of decision sciences at East Carolina University, or Elliott Pood, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Southern Mississippi University.
Joe Losco, treasurer of the American Association of University Professors and chairman of the Department of Political Science, said the AAUP members thought the search process was too rushed and could have had better candidates if the search had been done in the fall.
"We thought that the process was flawed so if the option were to arrive for another search we would not be upset with that," Losco said.
Gora, however, said she felt the search committee did an excellent job in selecting the candidates."I think we had a very good group of candidates, a very strong pool," she said. "The search committee reduced that to three fine candidates."
Losco said he didn't believe the AAUP decision not to support Bodman as an acceptable candidate for provost had any effect on Bodman deciding to withdraw his name.
"It's important for me to look at a person's entire career and to evaluate the contributions that they have made through out their career so that I get a good of what that person might do here at Ball State," Gora said. "I also talk to people who are not listed on their reference sheet. I just call people at random on not only the campus they're on but at the campus prior to that."
Smitherman said the decision on what to do next is up to Gora.
"At this point, the search committee has finished its responsibilities, and the decision is in President Gora's hands," he said.
Pood declined to comment, and Swart said he hadn't heard about Bodman dropping out yet, and he didn't have an opinion on the matter.
"Individuals apply for these positions for a number of reasons and many of them are personal or professional," Swart said. "I think regardless of the number of candidates my hope and expectation is that the best person for the job is selected."
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