The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside
announced last week he will step down this coming fall, becoming the third UW
System chancellor to resign this year.

John Keating is in his 10th year as chancellor of
UW-Parkside. He was very active on campus and in the community and forged
relationships with local community members, students and staff alike, according
to the UW System.

Keating joins UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley in stepping
down late this summer, and his resignation will open a third search for a UW
chancellor this year as UW-Whitewater is currently looking for a leader.

In a statement, UW System President Kevin Reilly credited
Keating?s leadership with putting UW-Parkside on a solid fiscal and academic
foundation and ?having engaged a broad range of faculty, staff, student and
community voices.?

?[Keating] came in with the idea of putting education,
research, and community involvement all together,? said Dave Buchanan, director
of public information at UW-Parkside. ?When he came to the university, there
was very little community involvement.?

According to Buchanan, Keating is respected among faculty,
staff, students and community members, adding the chancellor created many
different programs and organizations to help the students.

?His status as a community leader [in the Racine and Kenosha
communities] is just the same as that of John Wiley here in the Madison
community,? UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said. ?I think that Jack Keating
has earned a lot of respect.?

The search-and-screen committee responsible for selecting
the next UW-Whitewater chancellor will be structured like the UW-Madison
committee. The committee will seek out candidates and narrow the pool down to a
group to be reviewed by a special Board of Regents committee. The candidate
will then be approved by the entire Board of Regents.

?By rule, the search-and-screen committee must be comprised
mostly of faculty from that campus. It may not be exactly the same size [than
the UW-Madison committee], but it will be very similar,? Giroux said.

The resignation of another chancellor this year has left the
UW System with ?something to think about,? Giroux said, adding Reilly has
already appointed four chancellors during the four years he has been president.

?We?re seeing a pretty good turnover rate in our
chancellors,? Giroux said. ?Some can be easily explained by the fact that some
of them are getting to retirement age, but some are leaving for more
competitive offers and that raises a number of questions for us. We have to be looking
very carefully at whether or not we are in a position to be competitive.?

The loss of one great chancellor means an opportunity for a
new perspective, Buchanan said.

?[His resignation] removes someone who has a lot of
experience,? Buchanan said. ?But it also creates the opportunity for somebody
that wants to make their mark and excel in the UW System.?

Reilly has yet to appoint a search-and-screen committee to
find the new UW-Parkside chancellor.