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Forum reveals campus requests

Attendees of the University of Wisconsin’s Search and Screen Committee’s open forum Tuesday said they want the next chancellor to take the university to the next level.

“We held the forum to reach out to the campus community and get a variety of perspectives,” Search and Screen Committee Chair Marsha Mailick Seltzer said. “Today was very successful; we heard very diverse comments.”

The committee hopes to have a new chancellor approved at the Board of Regents meeting by June 6 of this year. The new chancellor will replace John Wiley, who is stepping down in September.

Those in attendance were invited to express to the committee the qualities they would like UW’s new chancellor to possess. Nearly a third of the 25-member audience got up and spoke.

Among those speaking was Mark Bugher, the director of University Research Park. Bugher served on the committees that helped appoint both Chancellor Wiley and UW System President Kevin Reilly.           

“The [new] chancellor needs to be a lightening rod for policy advocacy,” he said. “He or she needs to be a change agent who understands the changing role of secondary education in society.”

Rick Marolt, lecturer at the UW School of Business, expressed concern over the future of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology and how a new chancellor will react to claims of unethical treatment of primates. His concerns were in response to Wiley’s avoidance of the issue of ethical treatment of animals.

“How many people are asking how ethical the research is?” Marolt asked. “The new chancellor needs to believe in public accountability.”

Adrienne Pagac, a second-year graduate student in sociology, was one of three graduate students who spoke to the committee. She said she wants to make sure the new chancellor would understand the need for graduate research projects funding.

“We need to elect an individual who is very much concerned with how graduate students fit into research on campus,” Pagac said. “We need someone committed to funding research.”

The Search and Screen Committee is made up of 23 members. Twelve of the members are faculty, and the rest include a collection of community members, a dean, staff members and two students. Reilly personally appointed some members.

The committee will accept nominations for a new chancellor until March 28. The committee has set up a page at chancellorsearch.wisc.edu to provide more information to prospective candidates and to keep the public informed about developments.

The final public forum will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 6 at Union South.