Provost candidate Terry King said interacting with students was one of the most gratifying things he could do.
While working as Kansas State University's dean for the College of Engineering, King said he also taught a class last semester.
"It about killed me because I didn't have time to do it," he said. "The university exists because students are there. There has to be some sort of connection on a routine basis."
King will visit Ball State University today to participate in an open forum at 3:30 p.m. in Bracken Library, Room 225.
King said the firm hired by President Jo Ann Gora to help in the provost search contacted him about the position. If the search firm had not contacted him, King said he probably would have never heard of the opening.
"Occasionally I get a call from a search firm," King said. "I'm not traveling anyplace. It's not a goal of mine to leave K-State, but I thought this would be an interesting one."
King has been up for provost position at other universities in the past including the University of Kentucky during fall 2005, Kansas State University in 2004 and Iowa State University in 2002.
Joe Losco, treasurer of the Ball State chapter of American Association of University Professors and chairman of the political science department, said King had impressive credentials.
From the research done by faculty members, Losco said they discovered that King was fairly committed to shared governance within a university.
"Apparently he has a very open way of doing business including building budgets at public forums so everyone knows what's happening," Losco said.
That is extremely different from how Ball State operates, he said, because Ball State's budget process is top-driven and not public. He thought it would be great if an open budget process were started at Ball State, Losco said.
"He'll have his hands full convincing them, I believe," Losco said. "It's so different from the way things are done here now. It would be a surprise if he could bring that model and get it to work at Ball State."
Since former candidate Belinda McCarthy dropped out of the search, the three remaining candidates - King, Bjong Wolf Yeigh and Y.T. Shah - all of whom have backgrounds in engineering.
Losco also said he thought there would be more questions at the open forums for the remaining candidates about why and how they thought they could fit into a university that did not have an engineering program.
King said engineering was a cross-disciplinary endeavor that required a good base in liberal arts knowledge.
"It is interesting that perception of engineers is more like the Dilbert cartoon," King said. "While funny, that's not always accurate."
King comes from a background that is focused on research within a university
"Particularly at a research institution like I am here, it's part of what a professor does," King said. "It constantly invigorates the curricula. It's important to do."
He said he did not want to prejudge the institution, but if implementing research made sense for Ball State, he would do it.
"There are some places where adding a research component would make a lot of sense, and others where it would not," King said.
King said he was excited about coming to visit Ball State.
"I've been very impressed with the people I talked with on the search committee," he said. "I see there is a certain level of energy at Ball State that I find exciting."
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