Former University of Wisconsin Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows, when applying for a top position at the University of Texas, submitted a résumé asserting an April 1 return date to UW. With his consideration by UT extending beyond that date, at least one search committee member claims to have believed Barrows was back at work in Madison.

"I was under the impression that he had started back [at Madison]," Marilyn Kameen, chair of the UT search committee, said.

As first reported by The Badger Herald last week, Barrows submitted a similar — if not identical — résumé to the University of Toledo when applying for a senior post at that school. But while Toledo's search process concluded in mid-Spring, UT's extended past the April 1 date.

A copy of the résumé Dr. Barrows' submitted to Toledo, obtained by The Badger Herald, reveals that he listed "Vice Chancellor, University of Wisconsin Madison, Effective April 1, 2005" as his future position. This entry comes in addition to a later line on the document listing his most recent experience at UW, "Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs … July 1999 to November 2004."

Though The Badger Herald cannot confirm Barrows' expectations at the time of the résumé's drafting, he did not return until June 20 and when he did so it was not in the capacity of Vice Chancellor.

Kameen says she was never notified by Barrows, before or after April 1, that he had, in fact, not returned to work at UW.

Barrows could not be contacted at the time of this story's writing and university officials declined to immediately comment on his application to UT.

Barrows served under Wiley as Vice Chancellor until November when he abruptly took leave from UW. It has since been revealed that this departure came on the heels of accusations of an affair with a graduate student.

"A significant factor in Dr. Barrows' leave of absence was a relationship, which had just then been reported to me, between Dr. Barrows and an adult graduate student," Wiley wrote in a press release on June 23. "Dr. Barrows acknowledged the relationship and contended that it was fully consensual and not a violation of any law or university policy."

Though he now contends his leave was not physician-authorized, Barrows reportedly took 588 hours of sick leave in addition to accrued vacation time.

After nearly seven months away from UW, Barrows returned to work on Monday, June 20. Within a matter of days, however, he would come under intense scrutiny from area and state leaders, questioning the legitimacy of his receiving full pay — nearly $200,000 a year — during his time away from UW. Since the job of vice chancellor had been abolished since Barrows' leave commenced, he was given a modified administrative post upon his return and a new salary of $150,000.

On June 23 — less than a week after Barrows' return to UW — Wiley placed the former vice chancellor on administrative leave, announcing an investigation into what the chancellor called in a release "additional reports of improper conduct." At this point, Barrows was demoted to a backup position at a further reduced salary.

"As a result, we are required to place him in his indefinite backup position, established as senior administrative program specialist, in the Office of the Provost, at a salary of $72,881," Wiley noted in the same release.