Three finalists for the position of provost at Ball State University will take part in meetings and hour-long public forums as part of their formal visits to campus.

   All forums are open to the public and will take place in Bracken Library, room 225.

• William Swart, professor of decision sciences, East Carolina University, 10:30 a.m., Sept. 16
• Elliott Pood, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, University of Southern Mississippi, 8:30 a.m., Sept. 20
• Andrew Bodman, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Western Washington University, 9:30 a.m., Sept. 28

For the last two years, Swart has served as a professor of decision sciences at East Carolina (Greenville, N.C.) after serving one year as the university's provost. Prior to moving to East Carolina, Swart spent five years as dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.)

Swart earned a doctorate in operations research and a master's in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.). He earned a bachelor's in industrial engineering from Clemson University.

Pood has served as dean at Southern Mississippi for the last two years. Prior to that position, he spent four years as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Alabama (Florence, Ala.). Before going to Alabama, he worked 10 years as assistant dean, interim associate dean and chairman of the radio/television/photography department at Middle Tennessee State (Murfreesboro, Tenn.).

Pood earned a doctorate in organizational communication and communication theory from Florida State University, a master's in communication studies from Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.) and a bachelor's in communication and business administration from West Georgia College (Carrollton, Ga.).

Bodman has served in his current position at Western Washington (Bellingham, Wash.) since 1999. Prior to this assignment, he spent much of his academic career at the University of Vermont. For 20 years, he served as a faculty member and held various leadership positions including department chairman and vice provost.

Bodman earned doctorate and master's degrees in geography from Ohio State University, and master's and bachelor's degrees from Cambridge University.

The position of Ball State's provost was vacated by Beverley Pitts June 30 when she became president of the University of Indianapolis.

(Note to editors: For more information, contact H. O'Neal Smitherman, vice president for information technology, at (765) 285-1045 or osmitherman@bsu.edu.)