The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents announced Friday the members of the committees that will choose the UW System’s next president. The Board also announced Carlos E. Santiago as the new University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chancellor.
Regents President Toby E. Marcovich appointed an 18-person committee to screen UW System presidential candidates. Marcovich said the Search-and-Screen Committee, chaired by Regent David G. Walsh, will conduct its first meeting Tuesday to identify and eventually select candidates to succeed UW System President Katharine Lyall Sept. 1.
Members of the committee include: UW-Stout Student Government President David Hay; Regent President Emeritus Michael Grebe; Regent President Emeritus Thomas Lyon; UW-Platteville Chancellor David Markee; UW System Senior Vice President for Administration David Olien; Regent Elizabeth Burmaster; Regent Charles Pruitt; Regent Beth Richlen; Regent Peggy Rosenwig; Regent Jesus Salas; Regent President Emeritus Jay Smith; and UW Provost Peter Spear.
Marcovich also said he will add one academic staff and one faculty member before the committee’s meeting Tuesday.
The UW System Search-and-Screen Committee will then recommend candidates to the Regent Selection Committee.
Marcovich will co-chair the Regents Selection Committee along with Regent Guy Gottschalk, the immediate past president of the Board. Committee members include Regents Mark J. Bradley, Roger E. Axtell, Danae Davis and Search-and-Screen Committee Chairman Regent David Walsh.
The Regent Selection Committee will proceed to conduct interviews and recommend a UW System president to the full Board in the same manner as the Regents selected Santiago for the UWM chancellor position.
Marcovich hopes the Regents will select the UW System’s new president by June 1.
“I realize this is an ambitious timeframe, but we need to move quickly so we can get a new president on board before the beginning of the academic year this fall,” he said in a press release.
In addition to officially appointing Santiago as UWM chancellor in a closed session of Friday’s meeting, the Board of Regents granted Santiago a tenured appointment as professor of economics at UWM.
“From every vantage point, Dr. Santiago seems an outstanding choice to carry on the fine work going on in Milwaukee to strengthen scholarship and research,” Marcovich said during Friday’s meeting.
Marcovich also feels Santiago’s strong cultural background in Latin & Caribbean studies and Puerto Rican ancestry will be a further asset to UWM’s already diverse campus.
Santiago will begin as UWM chancellor July 15 and earn an annual salary of $250,000.
The Regents also authorized UW to conduct a national search for a dean of its College of Letters and Science to succeed Phil Certain, who will retire at the end of this academic year.
The Board was forced to wait for the authorization before proceeding with its national search because the next dean’s salary will exceed 75 percent of Certain’s ending salary.
“I’d imagine our candidate pool will be an excellent one for this plum of a job,” Regent Roger Axtell said Friday.
At Friday’s meeting, the Regents also approved the $330,000 remodeling of UW’s Science Hall.
