BATON ROUGE - Just as the first round of interviews for candidates who are hoping to become President of Louisiana State University is scheduled to begin, one of the top contenders has dropped out.

WBRZ learned that Mary Anne Rankin, a Professor with the University of Maryland who also has ties to LSU, has decided not to pursue the position.  

She's been replaced by William F. Tate IV, the Provost/Executive Vice President of academic affairs at the University of South Carolina.

The eight semi-finalists have been split into two separate groups and each candidate will have about an hour and fifteen minutes to speak with LSU's Search Committee members by way of a zoom video conference.

The interviews begin around 9:30 a.m., Monday.

The Search Committee arrived at this point after combing through 23 applications to choose the top eight candidates.

The first three of the final eight to begin Monday's one-on-one interview process are:

-University of Louisiana System President, Jim Henderson

-Louisiana's Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne

-Professor/Chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Laurence Alexander

Since Rankin withdrew her name from the application process, and she would have been the fourth person interviewed on Monday, the candidate to replace her in this Monday interview has not been named.

In any case, LSU's Interim President, Tom Galligan, also recently announced his decision not to pursue the position.

Galligan added that the search committee should hire someone who is able and willing to remain in the role for at least five years.