Luck, for U. Iowa Provost Wallace Loh, has proven to be a bittersweet and quite unexpected experience.

To his surprise, U. Maryland officials informed Loh last week they had selected him as the school’s next president.

“The word is shock,” Loh told The Daily Iowan about his initial reaction. “You never sit down and say, ‘I’m going to be a president or a provost.’ “

The head of the search committee initially contacted Loh in mid-June. Though it was tempting to decline and tell the committee to continue the search, he said, he knew the magnitude of the opportunity.

Loh didn’t apply for the job. Rather, he said he an unknown source nominated him, adding he still doesn’t know who recommended him.

And throughout the confidential process, he said he knew nothing of the 300 other applicants being considered.

“It probably would have scared me off,” he said. “What are the odds?”

He said the obstacles he’s encountered during his two years at the UI, including the financial crisis and flood, made him attractive to the search committee.

Loh said he is grateful for his time, however brief, at the UI. He commended the faculty, staff, and students he worked with over the years, especially his collaboration with UI President Sally Mason.

At his time at the UI, Loh worked to increase the school’s retention rate, particularly with first-year students. He also became a public advocate for preventing dangerous drinking and helped develop a new strategic plan for the university.

When mentioning the strategic plan he helped set in motion, Loh separated himself from it: it’s not the provost’s plan, he said, it’s the UI’s plan.

“I can have a heart attack and die, and the plan will still go forward,” he said.

He also has faith in the continuation of the alcohol-safety program which, he feels, will go on regardless of the fate of the 21 ordinance.

Faculty and staff noted Loh’s effect on the university as positive.

“[Loh] changed the way we think of the educational experience of first-year students,” said Edwin Dove, the president of the Faculty Senate.

While Loh still has several months before he assumes his new position on Nov. 1, he is fully grounded and firm in his current position as the provost of the University of Iowa. He wants the whole process to be as smooth as possible for all involved and especially for the UI faculty, staff, and students.

Loh will not have a say in who is appointed interim provost, which officials have said they’d like to have in place soon.

Loh will make a few trips to visit the University of Maryland and begin helping with tasks which cannot wait until the fall, such as the search for a new athletics director.

He said he’s still waking up in the middle of the night in disbelief.

“I have to pinch myself,” he said. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

DI reporter Hayley Bruce contributed to this report.