UH's Gogue headed to Auburn?

Looks like the revolving door on the University of Houston president's office may keep on spinning: Four years after he became president of UH and chancellor of the UH System, Jay Gogue has been named the sole candidate for president of Auburn University, his alma mater, and may have a job offer later this week.

According to The Birmingham News, the Auburn presidential search committee voted this afternoon to name Gogue, a 1969 Auburn graduate, its candidate for the presidency of the 151-year-old, 22,498-student university. "This was the guy that I thought was head and shoulders above anybody else," Auburn trustee Charles McCrary, chairman of the presidential search committee, told the Mobile Press-Register. "It was a perfect match." Gogue is expected to be on the Auburn campus Wednesday to meet administrators, faculty members and students, and the university's trustees could interview Gogue and offer him the job as early as Thursday. So far, no news outlets seem to have been able to get a comment from Gogue.

If Gogue leaves UH, the university will have to look for its 12th president in 80 years (or its 15th, if you count three men who served as acting presidents through the decades). In recent years, UH has faced a challenge in keeping a leader for the long haul: The university has had two presidents in the last 10 years alone, including Gogue, who came here in 2003 from New Mexico State University.

Update: The Chronicle is now carrying the story, complete with a quote from Gogue: "There are very few positions that could entice me away from the University of Houston and the UH System. However, the opportunity to lead my alma mater to its next level of excellence is indeed a once in a lifetime possibility." Leroy Hermes, chairman of the UH System Board of Regents, said the regents will likely meet within the week to pick an interim president and form a search committee. "I would like to think we could find the same qualities we had in Jay Gogue," Hermes said.