In narrowing down the search for the next second-in-command for the University of Wisconsin System, four finalists have been chosen to vie for the Vice President position.

UW System President Kevin Reilly announced the four finalists for the senior vice president for academic and student affairs for the UW System position Wednesday.
UW System spokesperson David Giroux said the finalists were selected by a search and screen committee following a competitive national search process.

The committee consists of 12 members from the UW System and various UW colleges.
He said each of the four finalists will be interviewed by the committee and Reilly, in addition to participating in video conferences with provosts, student affairs offices and other UW System stakeholders.

“Participants in those video conferences will be invited to share their impressions with the committee, giving us an even broader assessment of each candidate’s strengths and weakness,” Giroux said.

The applicants included UW Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Aaron Brower, Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of Colorado System Kathleen Bollard, UW System Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark Nook and University of Illinois at Chicago professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics Mrinalini Rao.

Giroux said the significance of the Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs position is similar to the role of a provost on each campus.
He said the senior vice president serves as the UW System’s chief academic officer, overseeing the approval of new degree programs as well as other System strategic initiatives, such as efforts to improve graduation rates and retention rates.

Brower said he believes the position will be at the very center of ensuring that the UW System institutions provide quality education to all students and ensuring that the entire student educational experience is a good one.

“What I do best is bringing students, staff and faculty together to produce quality education. On our campus, I’ve done this through the Wisconsin Experience, Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, course and curricular reforms, learning communities, URS and FIGs, e-learning, advising and now Educational Innovations,” he said.

He said he also works with colleges all across the country to help them figure out how to support integrative and high-impact education like undergraduate research, First-Year Interest Groups and residential learning communities.

Brower, along with the other three finalists, Bollard, Nook and Rao, will be interviewed from April 18-20 in Madison. UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer, along with the rest of the search and screen committee, will be conducting these meetings.

Bollard said in an email to The Badger Herald that her experience working at her institution and closely with the other Colorado four-year institutions has helped her to understand the role that a system plays in balancing institutional autonomy with the need for a university to reach consensus. 

“I like very much the idea that the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state, and that the people of Wisconsin take so much pride in the UW System. I would welcome the chance to learn more about the university and the communities it serves,” she said.

One of the four will take on the position previously filled by Rebecca Martin, who left the role in July 2011 to accept a position with the U.S. Education Delivery Institute in Washington, D.C.