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.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has announced her resignation on Tuesday to become president of Amherst College.
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.
Biddy Martin is leaving her post as chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become the next president at Amherst College, a highly regarded liberal arts school of 1,600 students located in Massachusetts. Martin made her announcement in an email sent to the campus community Tuesday morning. She started her post in Madison in September of 2008 after serving as provost at Cornell University.
It is accurate to say UW Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin did not get everything she wanted with her New Badger Partnership proposal. And that?s too bad because, in fact, she is right
The University of Wisconsin?s flagship Madison campus would receive more flexibility in how it operates but it would also remain part of the university system under changes to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget approved by a legislative committee Friday. Funding to all campuses would be cut 11 percent, the same level Walker proposed. The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted along party lines 12-4 to reject Walker?s proposal to break Madison off from the 13-campus system before completing work on the budget shortly after midnight early Saturday morning. While Madison would remain in the system, it and all the campuses would have more flexibility in how they spend state money and make decisions related to personnel and other areas.
Legislators officially killed plans Friday to turn UW-Madison into an independent authority, opting instead to give more flexibility to every campus in the University of Wisconsin System. The new plan would give all of the state universities and two-year colleges greater freedom over personnel and property decisions and provide university leaders a block grant that would allow the individual schools to keep money saved through cost-saving measures. The proposal unveiled Friday would also create a panel of experts to study ways to add even more flexibility to the university system.
University of Wisconsin System campuses will be granted some freedoms from state oversight on budgeting, personnel, construction and purchasing when the Legislature?s Republican-led budget-writing committee meets later Friday.
The Madison campus will remain a part of the University of Wisconsin System under changes to be approved by the Legislature?s budget committee, but it and other campuses will be given new flexibilities.
The state’s flagship university will remain part of the University of Wisconsin System, with all public universities receiving deep cuts but also new flexibilities from state rules, under a proposal coming before lawmakers Friday.
Just when you think things can?t get any more bizarre in the UW-Madison vs. UW System family feud ….UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin emailed leaders across the UW System Wednesday night to say she was “dismayed” by a press release put out earlier in the day by the Badger Advocates, a privately funded group of more than a dozen lobbyists advocating at the Capitol on behalf of Martin and her vision for a new business relationship between the state and Wisconsin?s flagship higher education institution.
The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to take up the University of Wisconsin System?s budget later this week. The state?s budget-writing committee is meeting Thursday and Friday, starting at 1:00 p.m. each day, in Room 412 East of the Capitol to examine the budgets of a range of agencies — including that of the UW System. It?s not yet clear which day the JFC will tackle UW System-related issues.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to break off the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System is dead. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Friday it?s now clear there?s not enough support for the UW-Madison split at this point, though she?s optimistic a similar plan could be studied. “I don?t think anything is foreclosed,” Martin said. “I think there?s a huge amount of interest that?s been demonstrated in change, I just don?t know what the ultimate outcomes of these various efforts at change will be.”
The proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System may be dead, but UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said she hopes another plan will rise in its place to give the university more freedom from oversight. Martin said she?s ?accepted the improbability? that Gov. Scott Walker?s controversial budget proposal will pass. ?I?m actually delighted by the potential in some of these compromise plans we?ve seen to get forms of decision-making and authority, as well as flexibility, for UW-Madison and the other campuses,? Martin said. ?It would be unprecedented obviously to have that kind of progress.?
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to break off the Madison campus from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System is dead.
MADISON, Wis. — Under the state?s current proposed budget, the University of Wisconsin-Madison faces more than $125 million in funding cuts.
MADISON, Wis. — A plan to spin off the state?s flagship school from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System appears to be dead.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s chancellor acknowledged Friday that it?s unlikely that a plan to split the flagship campus from a board that oversees the rest of the state?s public universities will get approval from lawmakers this summer.
Republicans are already referring to the New Badger Partnership as roadkill.
Margaret Raymond, a professor at the University of Iowa since 1995, is the new dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
“Margaret is a distinguished legal scholar and a lively intellect,” UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin says in a news release announcing the move. “She has a keen sense of the strengths of our law school. We are delighted she has decided to join our team.”
Last weekend I attended one of the commencement ceremonies at UW-Madison and, while I was very proud of the students, I was disappointed with the graduation itself.
WHITEWATER ? State Rep. Steve Nass on Tuesday said Republican lawmakers favor keeping UW-Madison linked to the state system, and will instead work toward giving some financial flexibilities to all UW campuses.
Last weekend I attended one of the commencement ceremonies at UW-Madison and, while I was very proud of the students, I was disappointed with the graduation itself.
….All in all, it was disappointing to see these students? graduation ceremony hijacked by politics and begging for funds.
First, full disclosure. I am a UW?Madison grad, as are my three kids, my bride, her mom and my dad. And several of my siblings, nieces and nephews are System grads or current students.
The New Badger Partnership has sparked serious discussion about the future of UW-Madison and many questions remain unanswered as summer approaches.
The 34th annual state convention of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, entitled “Moving Wisconsin Forward,” takes place this weekend in Madison, and readers of The Capital Times can get a special registration discount to attend. The two-day convention will include addresses by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, former Gov. Patrick J. Lucey and Elizabeth Warren, head of the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
