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Farewell, Chancellor

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by Badger Herald Editorial Board

Monday, December 10, 2007

There are few state jobs more important or demanding than chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin's flagship university serves more than 41,000 students, employs more than 16,000 people and has an annual budget of more than $2 billion.

On Friday, UW Chancellor John Wiley announced he will step down from the position he has held since 2001, effective Sept. 1, 2008.

Although we are not surprised — Mr. Wiley is 65 years old and retirement rumors have been circulating for years — we are nonetheless sorry to see him go. Despite dwindling state support over the past six years, which he has done his best both to combat and reverse, the university has flourished under Mr. Wiley's leadership.

Perhaps most importantly, UW remains one of the very best research universities in the nation, as evidenced by last month's stem cell breakthrough, which made international headlines and could put to rest ethical concerns over the promising research. Mr. Wiley, whose background is in physics and electrical engineering, undoubtedly deserves a great deal of recognition for UW's research successes.

We have also been impressed over the years with how Mr. Wiley has handled student government on campus. While we would have preferred to see him clamp down a little tighter on the fiscal irresponsibility that comes from our student government, the Associated Students of Madison, Mr. Wiley has long professed a great deal of respect for shared governance and allowing the students to control their own finances. Those are tough principles to argue against, and accordingly, we do place the bulk of the blame with our fellow students rather than the chancellor for some of ASM's poorer policies.

The chancellor's record of encouraging free speech on campus has been commendable, as well. Mr. Wiley has consistently refused to capitulate to overzealous student activist groups calling for the silencing of other voices. Just this semester, he told the Campus Antiwar Network that he will continue to allow Halliburton to hold job recruitments on campus. Almost two years ago, when this newspaper published a controversial Danish cartoon depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Mr. Wiley's reaction was appropriate and responsible, quoting the famous Bascom Hall "sifting and winnowing" plaque in a statement responding to the incident.

To be sure, there have been bumps in the proverbial road. His mishandling of the later-discredited sexual harassment allegations against former Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows was regrettable, and the whole sordid affair left the reputations of everyone involved tarnished. We have also watched, frustrated, as Mr. Wiley very publicly defended the merits of asking for a student's race on his or her admissions applications, while at the same time claiming no student has ever been admitted because of the color of his or her skin. These faults, however, should not cloud all the good Mr. Wiley has done for this university.

Looking forward, we are excited to see the fruits of a nationwide search for UW's next chancellor. It will be an exciting time of transition for this campus, but now is not the time for speculation. As we head into the last week of classes in 2007, we gratefully and sincerely thank Mr. Wiley for his years of service to the UW community.

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Anonymous (December 10, 2007 @ 2:26am):

I'm so glad you spoke of the "proverbial" bumpy road. Had you neglected to include the word "proverbial" before the cliché, I would have thought Chancellor Wiley failed to enact a suitable road maintenance policy on campus.

Oh, excuse me, I meant to say "Mr. Wiley."

Anonymous (December 10, 2007 @ 11:19am):

We get it, you love Wiley because he's liberal--not too liberal to actually "capitulate" to the evil Socialist fronts called CAN and SLAC--yet just liberal enough to hit all the feel good liberal points that make the College Dems blush out of joy.

Anonymous (December 10, 2007 @ 12:58pm):

I'm confused: is it the bumps that are proverbial, or the road? What makes it proverbial? Is there an ironic little nugget of truth at the end?

Anonymous (December 12, 2007 @ 7:34pm):

Bad editorial. Wiley's performance as
chancellor was abysmal. How much damage to
UW's reputation did the Barrows, Barrett,
Cohen, Coronado, Clark, Goodwin, Kaplan, and
Newby disasters cause? Relations with the
Assembly are at an all time low. The new
chancellor will have major challenges because of Wiley's total failure as chancellor.

Anonymous (December 21, 2007 @ 3:26pm):

True. Wiley was a dismal failure as chan-
cellor, and his performance has damaged UW
severely. Campus morale is terrible, and
rumors keep swirling of even bigger scan-
dals coming out in the future. The new
chancellor has his work cut out for him,
whoever is selected.

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