After 12 years of service at the head of administration,

University of Wisconsin System President Katharine C. Lyall

announced her retirement at a short-notice press conference

Wednesday.

“It has been my privilege to serve as President of the UW System

for the past 12 years, ” Lyall said at the beginning of what would

soon become her retirement announcement.

“This is an appropriate time for new energy and fresh leadership

of the UW System,” Lyall continued after referencing the “Charting

the Future” study, which is currently developing a “blueprint for

the UW System’s continuing contributions to Wisconsin’s

future.”

Lyall, 62, the UW System’s first female president, took her post

1992 and remained for much longer than the average

university-system president — an average of five five years.

She plans to continue her leadership role until the end of the

academic year, Sept. 1, or until her replacement is hired.

Board of Regents President Toby Marcovich plans to be a smooth

transition. Marcovich is in the process of putting together a

search committee to find the next president who has this new energy

Lyall speaks of; which he hopes to ultimately select by the end of

June. This is not something the board does happily, for Gov. Jim

Doyle and Marcovich tried to persuade Lyall to continue as

president.

Although this announcement comes as a shock to some, Lyall’s

retirement plans were in the works for a few of years. After

leaving Wisconsin, Lyall will move to Palo Alto, Calif., in

September as a visiting senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation

for the Advancement of Teaching, which she noted is a foundation

with a primary goal of improving higher-education teaching. Lyall

plans to stay in California for only a year before returning to

Wisconsin to settle.

Lyall assures students that the transition will be smooth and

also spoke of the help that will be needed from students with the

next round of budget cuts or budget issues.

“I want to reassure students that their education will continue

with quality,” Lyall said.

She noted one of her strongest accomplishments in her tenure as

the UW System president by producing more than 300,000

graduates.

“These have been years of great challenge and many achievements

during which UW institutions have produced more than 300,000

graduates and worked together to become more engaged in Wisconsin’s

economy and its communities,” Lyall said.

With this, approximately half of all UW System graduates since

its establishment in 1971 have Lyall’s signature on their

diploma.

These graduates were affected by the leadership of Lyall; as

have UW’s current students. Administrators and officials left and

right are releasing statements after hearing of the announcement,

in which all highlight her accomplishments and leadership.

UW Chancellor John D. Wiley expressed his gratitude for Lyall’s

many years of hard work, dedication and student focus.

“Katharine epitomizes what it means to be a great university

president in her proven ability to keep the UW System moving

forward, even in the face of fiscal adversity,” he said in a

statement. “Despite dwindling resources, she has made the system

more accountable to its stakeholders by improving student success,

efficiency and public service.”

Gov. Doyle also commented from a personal perspective on the

future departure of Lyall from the UW System.

“On a personal level, I have great admiration for Katharine

Lyall and I will miss working with her on a day-to-day basis,”

Doyle said. “I know she had originally planned to retire a year

ago, and I appreciate the fact that she stayed on to work with me

and my administration through my first year as governor.”

However, Lyall managed to affect individuals nationwide and

apart from Wisconsin. University officials nationwide are also

commenting on Lyall’s 12-year tenure.

“The most remarkable thing about Katharine Lyall is her great

skill as a leader of one of the largest and most complex university

systems in the nation, paired with a genuine warmth and deep

integrity that mark her as a person,” Stanley O. Ikenberry, former

President of University of Illinois and former President of the

American Council on Education, said. “Without question, she is one

of the most admired and respected higher-education leaders in the

country.