The field of contenders to be the next UW-Eau Claire chancellor is narrowing, and finalists have been drawn from all three coasts (if you count the Mississippi River as a coast). In mid-February, the UW System unveiled the names of the finalists: Pam Benoit, executive vice president and provost, Ohio University; Anne E. Huot, provost and vice president for academic affairs, The College at Brockport, State University of New York; Kent Neely, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Western Oregon University; and James C. Schmidt, vice president for university advancement and executive director of WSU Foundation Board of Trustees, Winona State University. (A fifth finalist, Kathryn Cruz-Uribe, of California State University, Monterey Bay, dropped her name from contention Feb. 23 after taking a different job.) Public, on-campus forums were scheduled for all finalists, and two are yet to be held: the forum with Benoit will be 2:30-4pm Monday, March 4, in Schofield Auditorium, and the forum with Schmidt will be 2:30-4pm Wednesday, March 6, also at Schofield Auditorium. After their campus visits, the finalists will be interviewed March 20 by UW System President Kevin Reilly and a committee of regents, including Edmund Manydeeds and John Behling, both of Eau Claire. The committee will recommend one finalist, who then must be OK’d by the full Board of Regents. The man or woman they choose will be the permanent replacement for former Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich, who left UWEC last year to become president of Westminster College in Salt Lake City. Gilles Bousquet, a former UW-Madison administrator, has served as interim chancellor since last summer. For more information on the candidates, visit tinyurl.com/UWECsearch.