As the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire struggles to drum up student interest in its search for a new chancellor, a search for a new provost is now not far behind as Ronald Satz officially retired from the post Monday.
Second only to the chancellor, Interim Provost Steve Tallant began serving in the vacated position Apr. 21 when Satz took medical leave for treatment of a recurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"Ron Satz is a professional of the first order and has been completely dedicated to, and in large part is responsible for the excellence that has become associated with UW-Eau Claire," Don Mash, Executive Vice President for the UW System and former UWEC Chancellor, said in an e-mail.
Satz's last day was only a technicality, as Interim Chancellor Vicki Lord Larson said Satz did not come in but instead remained hospitalized at a University of Minnesota hospital.
"He's getting a transplant, a stem-cell transplant for a reoccurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," Larson said. "He's very optimistic that things will work out."
According to Larson, Satz is a nationally recognized expert in the area of American Indian treaty rights and published widely in that discipline. Mash too referred to Satz as an outstanding teacher and scholar and expressed hope of finding him in front of a UW history class again in the future.
"We had hoped and prayed that his return to the Provost position after his valiant battle with his illness was the end of it [but] sadly, that wasn't to be," Mash wrote. "He's battling again and we all hope and pray that this phase of the battle will result in a timely and lasting remission."
Larson, who came out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor, said she has no interest in being named permanent chancellor, a position the Board of Regents will fill at their February meeting. Once a new chancellor is in place, the search for a new provost will commence.
UW System spokesperson Doug Bradley acknowledged having the top two positions at any school in the system filled by interim appointees is not ideal, and stressed the greater need to keep salaries high in order to recruit the best talent not only for top administrative positions but for faculty and research positions as well.
"This is the challenge we're facing system-wide and that is our ability to be competitive in the recruitment of senior academic leaders," Bradley said. "The sooner we can get to these conversations about competitive salaries and situations, the better off we're going to be."
While UWEC faces the daunting task of filling the top two administrative positions at the university at the same time, Bradley hinted UW-Madison may not be far behind. Associate Vice Chancellor Virginia Sapiro will fill the provost's office on an interim basis when Peter Spear retires next week.
"You're looking at a campus where you've got a chancellor who I think is getting ready to think about what he's going to do next [and] you've got an interim provost and so we need to be attentive to these issues," Bradley said.
Bradley stressed he does not intend his comments to be interpreted as him hurrying Wiley out of office. Jan. 1 will mark Wiley's fifth anniversary as chancellor.
"John's had an extraordinary run, he's done great things [but] I'm sure at some point he's going to be considering about how much longer he's going to do this," Bradley said. "Five [years] is usually seen as that kind of magic number and it seems to be what both individuals and campuses [favor]."
