Interim President Lou Hencken will be out of a job once a new president is seated in the next couple months, which could pave the way for the 36-year university veteran’s retirement.

Hencken still refuses to say whether he applied to take on the presidential position permanently, but he wishes the three candidates who were announced Tuesday the best.

“I have said from the beginning that I would respect the wishes of the committee,” Hencken said when asked if he had applied for the position. “I hope that the faculty, staff and students will give the candidates a very warm welcome. We have a great university that has a lot to offer, and I’m very confident that we attracted an excellent candidate pool.”

Hencken said he wants to keep all his options open after his interim position is filled by Eastern’s next permanent president; however, he said it is unlikely it would be easy for him to stay on in an administrative position at the university.

“In all honesty, it’s difficult to have someone that’s been an interim president sitting just down the hall,” he said. “But as I learned a long time ago – never say never.”

Hencken did rule out returning to his previous position of vice president for student affairs, which is currently being filled by Shirley Stewart, former associate vice president for student affairs.

“Shirley Stewart is doing a great job,” he said.

Presidential Search Committee Chair Robert Manion also refused to divulge whether Hencken was a candidate for the position, but attendees of an Annuitant’s Luncheon earlier this semester said at the time Hencken had announced at the event that he had submitted an application for the position.

However, Hencken has since said the attendees may have been confused, and the committee asked him not to discuss the issue publicly.

University Professionals of Illinois local President David Radavich, who led the union during tough contract negotiations last year when Carol Surles was president, said Hencken has had a “calming effect” on the university.

“I think he’s had a very successful career here,” he said, referring to Hencken’s ascension from graduate assistant to interim president in just under four decades. “He has served this university well and served it well as interim president too.”

Radavich said Hencken was just the right person to take on the presidency after Surles left in August to pursue treatment for breast cancer.

“”He knows the campus … (is) liked by the students, faculty and cares about the university,” he said.

Hencken graduated from Eastern with an education/guidance and counseling master’s degree and then began his career in student affairs as a graduate assistant. In those early years, he also served as a counselor, assistant director and associate director of housing. He was named director of housing in 1975, and in 1989, he became associate vice president for student affairs.

Three years later he moved on to be vice president for student affairs, where he stayed until the BOT appointed him to fill the presidency after Surles left in August.