Provost and vice-president for Academic Affairs Gordon Emslie announced in an email Friday that he was a finalist for the provost position at the University of Central Florida.

While Emslie said he has enjoyed his time at WKU, the UCF position was “an opportunity not to be missed,” he said in the email. UCF is currently the nation’s second largest university with an enrollment of 59,740 students. 

Emslie is one of three finalists for the position. He will have a campus open forum Tuesday, April 22nd that will take place at 3:15 p.m., according to UCF’s website. 

The two other candidates are: 

• Patricia Hunt, current chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Texas System.
• Dale Whittaker, current vice provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Purdue University. 

This isn’t the first time Emslie has been a finalist for the provost position at another university. Last April, it was announced that he was one of the final candidates for the provost position at the University of Alabama. 

At the time President Gary Ransdell told the Herald that he wasn’t concerned about the offer and wouldn’t be surprised if Emslie accepted it. 

“It is what it is,” Ransdell said at the time. “It’s not anything that I’m concerned about. I wouldn’t be surprised if offered, if he turned it down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if offered, and he took it. And I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he were the preferred candidate, again, given his stellar record as a scholar and administrator in that system.”

Emslie joined WKU in 2010 after previously working for Oklahoma State University as associate vice-president for Research and dean of the Graduate College, according to his curriculum vitae.