News

UW left with 3 positions to fill

The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside announced last week he will step down this coming fall, becoming the third UW System chancellor to resign this year.

John Keating is in his 10th year as chancellor of UW-Parkside. He was very active on campus and in the community and forged relationships with local community members, students and staff alike, according to the UW System.

Keating joins UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley in stepping down late this summer, and his resignation will open a third search for a UW chancellor this year as UW-Whitewater is currently looking for a leader.

In a statement, UW System President Kevin Reilly credited Keating’s leadership with putting UW-Parkside on a solid fiscal and academic foundation and “having engaged a broad range of faculty, staff, student and community voices.”

“[Keating] came in with the idea of putting education, research, and community involvement all together,” said Dave Buchanan, director of public information at UW-Parkside. “When he came to the university, there was very little community involvement.”

According to Buchanan, Keating is respected among faculty, staff, students and community members, adding the chancellor created many different programs and organizations to help the students.

“His status as a community leader [in the Racine and Kenosha communities] is just the same as that of John Wiley here in the Madison community,” UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said. “I think that Jack Keating has earned a lot of respect.”

The search-and-screen committee responsible for selecting the next UW-Whitewater chancellor will be structured like the UW-Madison committee. The committee will seek out candidates and narrow the pool down to a group to be reviewed by a special Board of Regents committee. The candidate will then be approved by the entire Board of Regents.

“By rule, the search-and-screen committee must be comprised mostly of faculty from that campus. It may not be exactly the same size [than the UW-Madison committee], but it will be very similar,” Giroux said.

The resignation of another chancellor this year has left the UW System with “something to think about,” Giroux said, adding Reilly has already appointed four chancellors during the four years he has been president.

“We’re seeing a pretty good turnover rate in our chancellors,” Giroux said. “Some can be easily explained by the fact that some of them are getting to retirement age, but some are leaving for more competitive offers and that raises a number of questions for us. We have to be looking very carefully at whether or not we are in a position to be competitive.”

The loss of one great chancellor means an opportunity for a new perspective, Buchanan said.

“[His resignation] removes someone who has a lot of experience,” Buchanan said. “But it also creates the opportunity for somebody that wants to make their mark and excel in the UW System.”

Reilly has yet to appoint a search-and-screen committee to find the new UW-Parkside chancellor.