The news of former Chancellor Biddy Martin’s departure from her post was a fitting and predictable ending to a tumultuous academic year in Madison. Upon announcing her decision, Martin insisted she was not leaving because of the political failure of the New Badger Partnership, but the deflated atmosphere that her resignation created proved the commitment of the Biddy faithful.
Almost six months later, that sense of deflation still hangs over the University of Wisconsin. Students and some faculty feel that Martin’s departure signaled the unfulfilled potential of a great leader in higher education, while others have tacitly celebrated her political defeat. For those in the higher education community, Martin does have at least one thing in common with Gov. Scott Walker: Almost everyone has an opinion about her, still. Even after finding closure with the New Badger Partnership’s failure, the initiative’s opponents still blame Martin for a variety of problems facing UW, some even suggesting she was one of Walker’s henchmen during this winter’s controversy.
Lately, Martin’s absence has seemed even more pressing for those who saw her chancellorship as the beginning of a new era for UW’s academic preeminence. Because of Martin, the university is well-known abroad and nationwide. Leaders sympathetic to Martin have called her a visionary; others have called her destructive, but I prefer a different term: earnest.
Martin’s tenure, especially during the NBP process, was characterized by a significant influence over the student body not seen since former Chancellor Donna Shalala’s popularity in the early ’90s. For UW students, Biddy became a name as widespread as other single-name monikers like Obama, Barry and Bo. To some extent, Martin exerted a disturbingly savvy PR influence that created some skeptics, including me. But behind Martin’s positive public image – most of which was likely genuine – was a thirst for change and lack of complacency that the university’s leaders clearly lack in her absence.
The New Badger Partnership was flawed, and the proposal process even more flawed. Insults flew between professors and student government leaders, and Martin engaged in testy exchanges with protesters outside her Bascom Hall office. Walker eloquently tweeted that “We need 2 give UW the tools 2 operate more like a business.”
Martin stood in the middle of the crossfire between these two factions and thus received most of the blame and negative rhetoric. On Facebook events, she was Photoshopped to appear like Queen Elizabeth II, and some student protesters at the Capitol spoke to her with a level of vitriol more commonly seen from teenagers pissed their parents won’t let them stay out past midnight.
The flurry of controversy has now given way to a sustained sense of malaise in Wisconsin’s higher education leaders. Walker, the Board of Regents, a selection of UW professors and student leaders and polarizing figures on either side have caused this, but Martin has received blame for being the agent of division on Bascom.
As we approach the end of 2011, Martin’s role in UW’s history has once again become fair game for debate. She remains a polarizing figure despite being 900 miles away from Madison, but mostly because students remain nostalgic for her time as chancellor. As someone who was formerly leery of Martin’s influence over the student body, I’m starting to share this sentiment.
For the sake of the restoration of confidence in UW, it is essential that those still angry at Martin direct their ire somewhere else. Time has proven she was legitimately interested in UW’s progress, and the university isn’t the same without her.
Ryan Rainey ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and Latin American studies.
