The way he tells it, Pat Farrell wasn’t pining to be the new provost at UW-Madison.
Farrell, 50, begins the job today, serving as chief academic officer of the university and second-in-command to Chancellor John Wiley. But initially, he said, he had to be prodded to consider it, advancing his application for the lofty post and its $238,468 salary only after “a couple people called” and suggested he try.