Biddy Martin did her due diligence as the outgoing chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last week when she allotted much of her schedule to parting interviews with a variety of media. What follows is an edited version of a 24-minute session held last Thursday afternoon.
Before the search for a new chancellor begins, consider a few changes in the process so we don?t end up with another Biddy Martin, whose sole “accomplishment” was a failed attempt to break up the UW System. In tough economic times, substantially lowering the salary from where it stands now (nearly half a million a year) would send a positive signal to the rest of the state that no one is exempt from sharing the economic sacrifices the rest of us are expected to make.
Biddy Martin could barely get out the words that she was feeling both ?sad and happy? about leaving UW-Madison before members of the UW Marching band began serenading her with a song.?Heyyyyy, baby,? they sang, circling her where she stood on Bascom Hill. ?I wanna know-oh-oh. Would you be my girl?? Nearby, a red and white striped tent housed trays of steaming bratwursts, jugs of iced tea and gallons of the aptly named ice cream Strawbiddy Swirl. A line snaked up the hill as people waited to get a plate of food and wish Martin well. It was a festive picnic to send off the UW-Madison chancellor to her new job as president of Amherst College. Her last day in office is Thursday.
Carolyn “Biddy” Martin said her final goodbyes to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Thursday.
MADISON, Wis. — As the University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band played its time-honored ?On Wisconsin? at Bascom Hill, its usual sweet melody sounded a little bittersweet Wednesday afternoon.
Bid UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin goodbye with Bucky, brats, and her namesake ice cream, Strawbiddy Swirl. A farewell barbecue will be held on Bascom Hill Wednesday, beginning at 11 a.m.
In one of her final acts as UW-Madison chancellor, Biddy Martin wants to set aside $2.3 million so that low- and middle-income students won?t have to pay a proposed 5.5 percent tuition increase. Martin sent a letter to the Board of Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly on Friday seeking approval to use money from a 2011-12 tuition hike so that families with annual household incomes of less than $80,000 won?t have to pay the increase. Reilly responded Tuesday, letting Martin know the UW regents won?t set tuition and vote on the operating budget until Thursday and it would be ?inappropriate to pre-empt that action.?
In one of her final acts as UW-Madison chancellor, Biddy Martin asked the UW Board of Regents if she can set aside money so that low-and-middle income students won?t have to pay a proposed 5.5 percent tuition increase. Martin sent a letter to the Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly on Friday seeking approval to use $2.3 million from the 2011-12 tuition hike so that families with annual household incomes of less than $80,000 won?t have to pay the increase.
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Gov. Scott Walker?s union bargaining legislation may have made it difficult to pass a measure backed by both leaders that would have given the university more independence.
WisconsinEye Senior Producer Steve Walters conducts a video interview with outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.
In her final days as chancellor, Biddy Martin?s office in Bascom Hall is flooded with well-wishers, news reporters and campus officials with last-minute business.
Before moving on to become the first female president of Amherst College, outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin agreed to sit down Thursday for a short exit interview in her Bascom Hall office.
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said the political turmoil around her would have had made it difficult for her to continue at UW-Madison.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin shared a big hug on the Kohl Center stage after he received his diploma in May was a regular visitor to the Badgers? locker room after games and quickly became a favorite of the players and the coaches. She was the campus boss, which can be unnerving to some, but coaches and players felt comfortable around her.
With hopes of moving forward, UW System officials decided to turn back the clock in looking for leadership to guide UW-Madison. David Ward, who was chancellor at Wisconsin?s flagship institution of higher education from 1993 to 2000, was introduced as the university?s interim chancellor by UW System President Kevin Reilly at a press conference Wednesday at Bascom Hall.
“David, it?s no exaggeration at all to say, is one of the most admired American university leaders at home and abroad,” says Reilly.
UW System President Kevin Reilly and Board of Regents President Michael Spector held a news briefing Wednesday at Bascom Hall to announce the interim chancellor. Reilly made the hiring decision after consulting with Board of Regents leadership and key UW-Madison stakeholders such as administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and donors.
Former University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor David J. Ward will serve as interim chancellor while a team searches for a new leader for the state?s flagship school, officials said Wednesday.
A former University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor is returning to the position on an interim basis while UW officials seek a permanent replacement for the most recent chancellor. Chancellor Emeritus David Ward held the position from 1993 to 2000. He also led the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. for seven years. On Wednesday he was named the interim chancellor as of July 18.
UW System President Kevin Reilly lured former UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor of the state?s flagship university, an effort to provide an experienced and familiar leader after a period of contentiousness. ?He?s someone who can bring people together on campus, who can reach out to the other UW System chancellors and can serve as a very strong advocate for our flagship, land-grant, global institution that is UW-Madison,? Reilly said at a news conference Wednesday at Bascom Hall.
Former UW Madison Chancellor David Ward serve as interim chancellor as the school looks to replace Biddy Martin.
A former University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor is returning to the position on an interim basis while UW officials seek a permanent replacement for the most recent chancellor.
A former UW Madison chancellor will serve in that post until a replacement is found for Biddy Martin.
David Ward, who led UW-Madison from 1993 to 2000, will be introduced as the university?s interim chancellor at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, sources have told The Capital Times.
I read with interest outgoing UW Chancellor Biddy Martin?s list of ?accomplishments,? which included increased tuition for most middle class students, starting a book club, giving President Barack Obama a jersey, appearing in a music video, posing for pictures with students during snowball fights, going to China twice and apparently tweeting a lot with students.She also failed to achieve the New Badger Partnership Plan. For this she was paid more than 1.2 million dollars over three years.
We talk with the newly named president of Amherst College, Carolyn Martin, the college?s first female president, about her new post and politics in higher education. (Audio.)
As Chancellor Biddy Martin prepares to clean out her office in Bascom Hall by August, the coming national search for her successor should take into account some trends that are shaping higher education in other states.
The pay is good. The perks are, too. But who will want to be the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison? When Carolyn “Biddy” Martin abruptly announced last week that she was leaving the top post to become president of Amherst College, it was clear her relationship with the Board of Regents and UW System President Kevin Reilly had soured over a battle for campus autonomy, hatched behind her bosses? backs. With budget cuts looming and a raucous political atmosphere in Madison, the new person at Bascom Hall will have to be tenacious, politically astute and a peacemaker. Moreover, that person will have to show that leading a top-five public research institution has somehow not been tarnished by the turmoil.
And so, after six contentious months, the state of Wisconsin has a budget, a $66 billion spending plan balanced on the backs of the state?s children….We are already paying a price for this. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is gone. She may have been the university?s best hope for adapting to the future but she got caught up in Gov. Walker?s schemes and her position became untenable. I expect we?re going to see many of our best faculty members leave, too. It?s one thing to work here for less money than you can earn elsewhere; it?s another to work in an environment where the Legislature takes pride in cutting schools.
Wisconsin State Journal editorial page editor Scott Milfred appeared on Sunday morning?s “Upfront with Mike Gousha” on Milwaukee television station WISN-TV Ch. 12. He linked UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s departure to her frayed relationship with UW regents and UW System administrators following her push to split the Madison campus out of the System in Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s state budget.
Who are the top candidates to lead the University of Wisconsin-Madison while it searches for a permanent replacement for Chancellor Biddy Martin, who announced Tuesday she?s stepping down to lead Amherst College?
I posed that question to more than a dozen campus insiders over the past few days, and three names were consistently mentioned as top options: Paul DeLuca, John Wiley and Gary Sandefur.
….Insiders say the search to replace Martin will likely take eight months to a year, so whoever is named interim chancellor will have an opportunity to make a significant mark on campus.
Despite having one foot out the door, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin could have a hand in some key campus decisions before leaving next month for her new post as president of Amherst College.
Although no one is suggesting Martin would do anything to harm the university, several key campus players confided to The Capital Times that they?d nonetheless have a problem if she made any significant moves now that she has decided to leave town for a different job.
Maybe to encourage a little horse-trading of ideas among people of good will from both ends of the political spectrum, the next exorbitantly paid UW-Madison chancellor could choose something on the Socratic Method for an upcoming Go Big Read program.
Biddy Martin began her public transition from chancellor of UW-Madison to president of Amherst College on Thursday when she appeared at a welcome event on the campus of the Massachusetts liberal arts campus.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison is losing its chancellor. Carolyn Martin was embroiled in the recent political battles over the budget for higher education in her state. She?s acknowledged the “turmoil” of the past year but wouldn?t say how big a role it played in her departure. She?ll become president of Amherst College in Massachusetts.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin took a trip to Amherst College for a ceremony introducing her as the soon-to-be president. Martin is leaving her Wisconsin after being heavily recruited by the Massachusetts college.
Amherst College welcomed its new president Thursday.
As soon as she announced that she was leaving her post to become the president of Amherst College, UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn ?Biddy? Martin faced an onslaught of op-eds and feature stories attempting to quantify and summarize her impact on the university as a whole during her tenure here?her legacy, her policies, her controversies. None of that is really in The A.V. Club wheelhouse. Instead, we opted to evaluate how Biddy asserted her role as Chancellor over the campus literary scene, Babcock ice cream, and YouTube to influence Madison?s pop-culture zeitgeist.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s announcement on Tuesday that she would be leaving the university to become the president of Amherst College came as a huge surprise to most of the campus community. Martin announced her decision just days after the state legislature?s Joint Finance Committee rejected the major proposals of her contentious new business model for the university, called the New Badger Partnership.
Amherst College has named Carolyn Arthur ?Biddy? Martin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin?s Madison flagship campus, as the college?s 19th president.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said she was a recent, reluctant candidate for the presidency of Amherst College, but the opportunity to lead the Massachusetts liberal arts school was one she couldn?t turn down.
The process for choosing an interim chancellor to fill in for outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin officially begins Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly will appoint the interim chancellor after consulting with university faculty, administrators and alumni – along with the Board of Regents.
Reilly, who has been in Washington, D.C., on business, said Wednesday he has received a number of suggestions to fill the interim post. He said he will discuss possible candidates Thursday with the UW-Madison Faculty Senate, academic staff leadership and administrators.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin was, during her relatively short tenure as the head of the state?s flagship institution of higher learning, a relatively controversial figure.
That does not mean that Martin, who has announced that she will leave this summer to take over as chancellor of Amherst College, was a bad player. She was, in many senses, an engaged and effective administrator. And we wish Martin well in her next endeavor. But we hope that the next chancellor will be very different from the departing one.
Martin did not ?get? Wisconsin, and that prevented her from playing the role she might have in shaping the UW?s future. Her attempts to radically restructure the Madison campus?s relationship with the rest of the UW system and with the state never really took off.
Despite a turbulent chapter in UW-Madison?s recent history, there will still be plenty of interest from qualified applicants seeking to replace Chancellor Biddy Martin, experts say. But any candidate may have serious questions about the state?s commitment to higher education and the stability of the political environment, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. ?Being chancellor of UW-Madison has always been seen as an exceptionally desirable job,? Hartle said. ?The state?s political uncertainty does add a certain ambiguity to the job that has not been there in the past.? Martin announced Tuesday she is resigning to become president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college in Massachusetts. She said she expects to leave in four to six weeks.
There were times, not so long ago, when Biddy Martin envisioned spending the rest of her career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But after getting embroiled in a contentious debate with other higher education leaders across Wisconsin about how best to garner long-sought freedoms from state oversight, the 60-year-old UW-Madison chancellor announced Tuesday she is taking her talents to at least one more stop.
Jeremi Suri, the prominent history professor who is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison in frustration to join the faculty at the University of Texas, emailed me today about his analysis of university Chancellor Biddy Martin?s resignation posted today on his blog at Global Brief. It is passionate and blunt, a great read.
Losing UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to Amherst College is a major blow to our special Madison institution.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been selected as the next president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college in western Massachusetts, school officials announced Tuesday.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly will appoint an interim chancellor to replace Biddy Martin when she leaves UW-Madison in the next four to six weeks. Then, he will appoint a search and screen committee made up of faculty, staff, students and campus supporters to come up with a slate of finalists. Finally, a committee of Regents and Reilly will recommend a candidate to the full UW Board of Regents for approval.
After suffering a recent defeat in her effort to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System, Biddy Martin announced Tuesday she will leave the university after three years as chancellor to become president of Amherst College.
The UW-Madison chancellor accomplished so much in so little time and will be missed on and off campus.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been selected as the next president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college in western Massachusetts, school officials announced Tuesday.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been selected as the next president of Amherst College, school officials said yesterday.
AMHERST – Amherst College has selected the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as its next president, marking the first time that a woman will lead the 190-year-old liberal arts institution.
U-W Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is leaving Wisconsin to become the president of Amherst College in Massachusetts. She wasn?t looking, she says. ?I was approached by Amherst this spring and I was a reluctant invitee into the process.?
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin announced Tuesday she?s leaving the school to become president of Amherst College, a well-known, exclusive liberal arts college in Massachusetts.
Chancellor Biddy Martin announced Tuesday she is leaving UW to become president of Amherst College and assured the campus her departure is not a result of the failed New Badger Partnership.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has announced her resignation on Tuesday to become president of Amherst College.
While acknowledging she has had a contentious tenure as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin rebuffed suggestions Tuesday that her decision to become president of Amherst College signaled an exhaustion with the budgetary constraints and political attacks that have beset her campus and much of public higher education in the past year.
UW Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s resignation is depressing. And it is profoundly troubling. However you spin it, this feels very much like a state and – surprisingly a University System – that is resisting embracing the future.
Carolyn A. Martin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a flagship public research university with 42,000 students, is resigning to become president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college with 1,750 students.
