Third presidential finalist visits Marshall: Candidate to visit university's campuses in South Charleston and Huntington

A third presidential candidate is visiting Marshall University.

Charles E. Kupchella, president of the University of North Dakota,and one of four finalists for the Marshall presidency, will visit theuniversity's South Charleston and Huntington campuses today andThursday.

Kupchella will be the third finalist to visit the university.

John W. Bardo, chancellor of Western Carolina University, visitedlast week, and Thomas R. Hanley, vice president and professor ofchemical engineering at Auburn University, also is visiting thisweek.

Stephen J. Kopp, special assistant to the chancellor with the OhioBoard of Regents, and former provost of Ohio University, visits laterthis week.

Interim president Michael Farrell says he is not a candidate forthe job permanently as a condition from when he took the interim job.

Kupchella was meeting with the Marshall Graduate College facultyand staff at 3:30 p.m. today and then attending a reception withcommunity leaders at the Marshall University President's House at1040 13th Ave. in Huntington from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Presidential search committee co-chairs A. Michael Perry and MenisKetchum said involvement of Marshall personnel, in both Huntingtonand South Charleston, and the community is important in the searchprocess.

"We hope everyone takes advantage of this opportunity to meet withDr. Kupchella and hear his views on higher education and MarshallUniversity," Perry said. "These meetings are an important part of thesearch process."

Kupchella has been president of the University of North Dakota,where enrollment last fall was 13,187, since 1999.

Since 1999, the university had completed nearly $450 million inbuilding projects, some on campus and some as joint ventures withpublic and private partners.

Before going to North Dakota, Kupchella was provost and professorof biology at Southeast Missouri State University from 1993 to 1999.He was dean of Ogden College of Science, Technology and Health atWestern Kentucky University from 1985 to 1993, and professor andchairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Murray StateUniversity for six years before that.

He also served at the University of Louisville and BellarmineCollege in Louisville earlier in his career.