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Students able to have ‘big role’ in chancellor search

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by Carolyn Potts

Monday, January 21, 2008

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly appointed a committee last week that will begin the search for a new UW-Madison chancellor.

Reilly announced a 23-member search-and-screen committee to narrow down a list of possible candidates for the position opening when current chancellor John Wiley steps down in September.

The committee will include 12 faculty members, two academic staff members, one classified staff member and one campus dean. There will also be four community representatives, one UW System administration staff member and two student representatives who will be announced before Jan. 25.

Marsha Mailick Seltzer, UW professor of social work and pediatrics, will chair the committee.

“The committee will probably look for candidates through traditional means of advertising like in the Chronicle of Higher Education,” UW System spokesperson David Giroux said. “But because UW-Madison is such a prestigious institution, word will get out pretty quickly. We will also go after highly qualified leaders elsewhere and encourage them to apply. This is a search, but also a recruiting process.”

Students interested in participating in the committee are currently being reviewed by Associated Students of Madison Chair Gestina Sewell and Shared Governance Committee Chair Jeffrey Wright.

“[These student representatives] can have as big of a role as they want,” said Regent David Walsh, chair of the committee. “They can say anything they want, and I am sure they will have an equal vote.”

But Wright said it is still hard to say how much impact the student representatives will have on the final decision, given the student to non-student ratio in the committee.

“There will be 23 members on the search-and-screen committee this year, and two of them are students,” Wright said. “When Wiley was selected (in 2000) there were 21 members with two students. It is a concern because the committee has expanded, and we aren’t sure why two more members were added and at least one wasn’t a student.”

Wright said he hoped to have four or five students in the search-and screen-committee, but ASM was unable to expand the size of the committee to accommodate more students.

“Ideally, we would like to have one grad student and one undergraduate student, but it really depends on who is interested in the position,” Wright said. “And it’s really important to have students who will be vocal and who will highlight what is important to the student body as a whole.”

The committee plans to have a meeting in the next couple weeks to further discuss what they would like to see in the new chancellor, the needs and concerns of the student body and assess where UW is going and where it needs to go, Wright said.

Once the committee has narrowed down a list of five possible candidates for the chancellor position, a small group of regents will conduct interviews, chaired by Walsh.

The special regents committee will then select one candidate and recommend him or her to the full Board of Regents.

The search for the new chancellor will be a lengthy process, Giroux said, due to the diversity of groups being represented on the committee.

“I think the committee will be looking for someone who understands shared governance, and that they need to share the governance with all constituencies,” Walsh said. “They need to have a good understanding of Wisconsin’s ideals and the history of the university. They should also have lots of enthusiasm and be a good fundraiser.”

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Anonymous (January 22, 2008 @ 2:30am):

If we know anything for certain it is that students will NOT have a "big role" in choosing the next chancellor.

â��There will be 23 members on the search-and-screen committee this year, and two of them are students,â�� said Wright -- and how many of the other 21 have any involvement with students? Seriously, look at the list.

That committee is going to choose a research dweeb. We got lucky with Wiley, who at least cared somewhat what students think. Ask people about the chancellors before him -- they didn't give a damn about students and it showed.

Anonymous (January 23, 2008 @ 10:07pm):

There's more "community members" (aka businessmen) on the community than students. Does nobody else see anything wrong with that?

Anonymous (February 5, 2008 @ 3:13pm):

The most important thing with this search is
that the new chancellor clean up the grade
fraud scandal in the Political Science de-
partment before the budget repair bill
is done. Otherwise, the UW will be cut to pieces.

Anonymous (February 6, 2008 @ 12:03am):

I have heard about the problem in the PS
department. Is it really as bad as you
are suggesting?

Anonymous (February 14, 2008 @ 7:57pm):

It is terrible. Rumors flying around that
it could get worse before it gets better.

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