Members of the search committee for a new associate vice president enrollment management position decided last week to extend the search to April 15.

“We wanted to increase the pool of qualified candidates,” said Bob Owen, vice president of information technology and head of the search committee. “This is not a terribly unusual thing.”

The search committee had previously chosen two finalists — Patsy Reynolds, director of admissions at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Beth Wolfe, director of recruitment at Marshall University — and was ready to give a recommendation to the provost.

Owen didn’t elaborate on why the committee did not recommend either finalist due to confidentiality reasons.

However, Owen did say Reynolds and Wolfe would still be included in the pool.

“We just wanted to have more candidates to evaluate,” he said.

The position deals with managing enrollment at the university by working through divisions such as admissions and financial aid offices and with the prospective students, said Dale Brown, interim vice president for Enrollment Management.

Brown replaced Dean Kahler, who now works with the NAVITAS program at WKU, last April.

Owen said the committee will go through the same process as before in whittling down applicants to finalists. The process includes a paper screen of candidates’ resumes, phone interviews and on-site interviews.