When asked if he owns a cheese-head hat, Kevin P. Reilly, the new University of Wisconsin System president, laughed and said he does not. However, he does have a license plate in his office that reads: “In cheese we trust.”

Reilly assumed the executive position Wednesday, Sept. 1. His predecessor, Katharine C. Lyall, left the Van Hise office that’s been her home for 13 years Aug. 31.

The UW System Board of Regents approved the appointment of Reilly as the new UW System president July 29.

Reilly will oversee the 13 four-year and 13 two-year UW campuses and will be instrumental in defending UW’s financial needs to state legislature.

His salary will be $320,000, plus perks.

One of the greatest challenges Reilly faces is the largest ever UW budget cut: a $250 million reduction.

He said the less the system receives from the budget, the more tuition is likely to increase, a pattern he called a “basic equation.”

“We do not want to diminish the quality of our university, we do not want to lose faculty,” Reilly said. “The solution is to convince the state to invest in the university. States by and large have been disinvesting in their higher-education systems.”

He encouraged people to, “get on the horn to state representatives.”

Reilly said one of his main concerns was preserving the quality of education at UW schools in the face of a severe budget cut.

“If we have less and less money to spend, the quality of education will go down,” he said. “There has to be a balance between tuition and budget. The last few years the tuition increases were awfully high.”

He added the state must invest more in higher education.

Reilly said the Board of Regents proposed a 4.3 percent increase in tuition during the 2005-2007 biennium. Reilly and the regents hope the increase will be more manageable for students than the steeper increases of the past few years.

Gov. Jim Doyle and the Wisconsin state legislature must still approve the proposed increase early next year.

Doug Giroux, director of public information for UW Extension, said keeping tuition affordable is a priority for Reilly.

“I’ve heard him say if he had his way there’d be no tuition at all at a public university. This has been a very consistent message from him,” Giroux said. “We have the hope going forward that we can communicate effectively with the legislature.”

Reilly received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and his M.A. and PhD in English (with a focus on Irish literature and culture) at the University of Minnesota.

He wrote his dissertation on autobiographies of Irish writers. While many people dread writing a dissertation, Reilly said he was “actually interested in it.”

Before serving four years as UW Extension chancellor and four years as vice chancellor and provost, Reilly was associate provost for academic programs and secretary of the university at the State University of New York System.

The new president has three children; two are adopted from Colombia.

This link to another culture contributes to Reilly’s desire to push forward Plan 2008, UW’s 10-year plan to increase diversity in the system.

“I can say diversity begins at home for me,” he said in press interviews following his appointment as president.

Reilly listed the retention of minority students at UW as one of his primary concerns. He said he would like to see more pre-college programs aimed at drawing in students to specific academic departments.

About 10 percent of minority students in the state are enrolled in pre-college programs, he said.

“How students early on relate to academic homes at the university is important. Specific programs reaching out to students helps,” the system’s top executive said. “That can serve as a real magnet to attract students academically. Early contact can have a positive effect on retaining students.”

Lyall announced her retirement this spring. She has been “an enthusiastic supporter of Kevin Reilly since his arrival in Madison eight years ago” and she has pledged to assist him in the coming months of transition, according to a statement by Regent President Toby Marcovich.

Marcovich also said: “We are delighted that Chancellor Reilly has agreed to take on these new challenges and to work with us in making this great university system even better and more responsive to the needs of Wisconsin citizens.”

Of his achievements as president, Reilly hopes people in the future will agree that, “His presidency served to reinvigorate the Wisconsin Idea, serving public need across the state, serving broad public interest as well as student interest.”