Chancellor Biddy Martin announced Tuesday she is leaving UW to become president of Amherst College and assured the campus her departure is not a result of the failed New Badger Partnership.

Martin said in a press conference Tuesday that the decision came as a result of a great opportunity from the college and that she had not been actively seeking alternate professional opportunities.

Martin will continue to serve her duties until the end of August, when she will resume her new position in Amherst, Mass., just over three years after she was named UW chancellor on June 5, 2008, according to a statement from UW.

Martin, who previously served as provost at Cornell University, said Amherst officials approached her in the spring of 2011 and that she was a “reluctant invitee” to the interview process, having agreed to be a candidate only in recent weeks before formally accepting the position on June 11.

According to a statement from Amherst, Martin’s appointment concludes an international search process that launched in October.

One of the chancellor’s most contentious measures during her tenure was the New Badger Partnership, a proposal for increased administrative autonomy from the state, which she began to promote across the state nearly two years ago.

While the Joint Finance Committee recently removed the proposal, which became synonymous with Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to grant UW public authority status, from the state budget, Martin maintains that her departure is not a result of fallout stemming from the Partnership.

“Amherst would have been a great opportunity no matter what,” she said. “I’m not going because I’m disappointed in [the proposal’s] outcome.”

Martin, a UW alumna, added the work of members of the JFC for compromise between the principles of the New Badger Partnership and the UW System’s competing plan have provided a platform to take the next steps in achieving increased autonomy.

Martin’s legacy will include the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a program she said is among her most proud achievements at UW. Funds from MIU allowed the university to hire 80 new faculty members in majors that were traditionally plagued by bottlenecks for popular prerequisite classes.

Finding a replacement

UW System Board of Regents President Michael Spector said the next step following Martin’s announcement would be to appointment an interim chancellor to lead the university as a campus-wide search and screen committee prepares to take up the task of vetting and interviewing potential candidates for the position.

Martin said she expected System President Kevin Reilly would select an interim chancellor within one week of the announcement, a time frame Spector said would be necessary to combat state budget cuts to all UW System schools scheduled to take effect on July 1.

“The university system is faced with a substantial cut from the state,” he said. “We need someone in Madison to deal with the cut and to make a lot of important decisions in the coming months.”

UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said the search and screen process for a new chancellor would begin with a campus committee composed of members of the faculty, along with classified staff, students, alumni and donors.

He said this committee would undertake the arduous task of sifting through nominees from across the nation before selected a slate of finalists to do a series of public presentations on campus.

In response to questions as to whether a vocal minority of students advocating Martin’s resignation played a role in the decision to leave the university, she said that open-minded debate with students who hold differing viewpoints proved a rewarding part of her role as chancellor.

She also said her work to advocate the New Badger Partnership would not end with her departure, saying that while the proposal was commonly attributed as her sole creation, it was the consequence of the thoughtfulness and hard work of a large group of people close to the university.

“I’m confident the gains we’ve made will stay in place,” Martin said. “I don’t have regrets…I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”