Iowa State’s provost position wouldn’t be a stepping stone to another presidency, said executive vice president and provost candidate Elizabeth Hoffman, at a forum Thursday afternoon in the Gallery of the Memorial Union.

Hoffman, the former University of Colorado system president and former dean of Iowa State’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1993 to 1997, said to members of the ISU community – minus students – that Iowa State’s provost post offers her the perfect job in the perfect place.

“I don’t see this as a stepping stone to another presidency,” Hoffman said. “I really think as long as Greg [ISU President

Geoffroy] is here, I think this is the right job for me.”

Hoffman fielded questions from ISU faculty and staff during the hour-long forum and the following diversity forum. She briefly touched on the Colorado football recruiting sex scandals, her budget oversight experience and her previous stint as a provost from 1997 to 2000 at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

“I understand very, very well what this job is,” she said. “I have done this job and I understand what its responsibilities are and what they are not.”

Virginia Allen, retired ISU professor of English, attended Thursday’s forum — as well as Tuesday’s forum with Jeffrey S. Vitter – and said Hoffman is “far and away the better candidate.”

“[Hoffman] is just so much more qualified and so much more dynamic,” said Allen, who worked with Hoffman during her time at Iowa State. “She has so many more experiences [than Vitter]. It’s an unfair comparison.”

Hank Harris, professor in animal science, was similarly impressed with the former ISU dean’s academic experience and Iowa connections.

“She has roots in Iowa and she has unbelievable experience as dean and as the president of the university,” he said. “I just don’t think we could do any better.”