It was a surprising announcement to many on campus when University Provost Teresa Sullivan was named the University of Virginia's next president on Monday, one that even Sullivan said she was surprised by.

“It’s a little surprising to me too,” Sullivan said.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily yesterday, Sullivan outlined the circumstances that led up to her being chosen as the University of Virginia’s eighth president, what she needs to finish before leaving Ann Arbor and the tasks she will face when she arrives in Charlottesville.

Sullivan is set to take the helm at the University of Virginia on August 1, something she said she’s excited for. But despite the excitement that was obvious in her voice, Sullivan said this wasn’t a job she originally sought out or was overly interested in.

Sullivan said she was first contacted by an executive search firm, something she said wasn’t out of the ordinary.

“To tell you the truth, whoever is the provost at the University of Michigan gets contacted by headhunters three or four times a week,” she said. “It’s just because of the product of Michigan. It actually doesn’t matter who the provost is.”

Because the occurrence is so common for Sullivan, she said she didn’t have any particular interest when she was first contacted.

“A headhunter contacted me for the first time in the middle of August,” she said. “I basically didn’t respond.”

Sullivan said her initial apathy about the job was driven, in part, by the fact that she didn’t know whether the search firm was actually interested in her or just contacting her because of her position at the University of Michigan.

Once the search firm continued to contact her, Sullivan said she decided to talk with them about the position.

“They kept coming back to me over and over again,” she said. “Finally, somewhere toward the end of October, they said ‘Well look, you don’t have to apply. You don’t have to do anything, just send us your vitae and that’ll be enough.’ ”

“ ‘Well, that’ll be pretty easy to do,’ ” Sullivan said she thought at the time. “ 'In fact, it’s online.' ”

Sullivan said she sent an electronic copy of her curriculum vitae, but was caught off guard when they called back asking if she would be available for an interview.

“I was somewhat surprised, but when they called me they said ‘Would you come in for an interview,’ ” Sullivan recalled. “So I went for an interview.”

From there, things just seemed to fall into place for Sullivan.

“Then there was another interview after that and another one after that,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said once she was called back for the second interview, she knew things were getting serious and that she needed to inform University President Mary Sue Coleman of the situation.

“When you get called back for an additional interview, then it’s time to let your boss know what’s going on,” Sullivan said. “And so, I did that.”

“One of the reasons you do it is because you know she’s going to be called for a reference check and I don’t want her to be surprised by something like that,” Sullivan said, explaining her choice to inform Coleman of the situation when she did. “I told her that I knew I was going to go back for the second interview.”

Despite considerable experience as provost at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas system, Sullivan admitted that she has a great deal to learn before she takes the reins at the University of Virginia.

“I have a big learning curve,” Sullivan said. “I’ve got a busy year carved out ahead of me.”

“I have to learn a lot about the state of Virginia, not just the university, but also about how the general assembly works,” Sullivan said.