Penn State Law Dean Philip McConnaughay Is Kansas Provost Finalist

Kansas University has announced that Philip McConnaughay, the dean of the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University, is a finalist in its search for a new provost.  He was formerly on the Illinois faculty and, before that, was a partner at Morrison and Foerster.  My sense is that this would be a relatively unusual move.   Am I right that law deans are more likely to become university presidents than provosts?

Comments

[Anon]

Unusual, but hardly unprecedented. Geoff Stone served as provost at Chicago after serving as law dean there. Susan Prager moved from the law deanship at UCLA to become Dartmouth's provost. David Burcham went from law dean at Loyola (LA) to provost at Loyola Marymount. Ron Daniels was law dean at Toronto before becoming Provost at Penn. and Osgoode Hall law dean Patrick Monahan became provost at York U. Seems like a pretty logical step for someone with presidential ambitions.

[PSU Anon Staff]

I'm staying anonymous to avoid seeming like a total suck up, but Phil has been a brilliant, visionary dean at Penn State who also has an unflappable temperament. If he goes to Kansas it will be a huge loss for Penn State and a huge gain for Kansas.