The search for a replacement for Kirk Patterson, the outgoing Dean of Temple’s 25-year-old Japan campus is tightening. Final candidates have begun to visit with faculty, staff and students at the campus’s headquarters in the Minato-ku Ward of Tokyo.

Patterson, who has been the dean of and best-bearded Canadian on Temple University-Japan’s campus since January 2002 announced, his resignation in late August, effective December 31, 2007.

Rumors about his being pushed out by the Hart administration are still uncorroborated enough that they can’t even be reported in a blog. So, that isn’t being reported in this blog.

Look for a full story in the 11/27 edition of The Temple News.

Patterson holds dual American-Canadian citizenships and has lived in Japan for 24 years. And he speaks and reads Japanese, according to his biography on TUJ’s website.