After years of the COVID-19 pandemic’s shuttering of dear traditions, UW-Madison had its first proper spring commencement in three years on Saturday. As the smiling faces of friends and families packed the stands at Camp Randall, the theme of change, for students and the university, ran through the words of speakers and the audience of 42,000 people.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says she will miss the Memorial Union Terrace, Badgers game days and Bucky. What she won’t miss, she told reporters Wednesday, are the hurdles in leading “one of the more constrained and regulated universities in the country.”
Rebecca Blank isn’t sure what’s coming next in college athletics but as she prepares to leave her job as UW-Madison chancellor she said there will be challenges for her successor.
Outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said a recent campus survey which found that students in marginalized groups feel less safe than majority groups on campus represents “unfinished business” for her successor.
On the cusp of leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chancellor Rebecca Blank used a final news conference Wednesday to take somewhat of a victory lap, saying she is leaving the university on strong financial footing and in a much better place.
But she also took the opportunity to highlight “unfinished agenda” items, such as increasing diversity and students’ sense of belonging on campus.
Provost John Karl Scholz sees a bright future ahead for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of five finalists for UW-Madison chancellor, Scholz spoke in a public forum Friday, outlining three strategies to help the university achieve success: engaging with stakeholders, expanding campus resources and listening to the community.
UW-Madison chancellor finalist John Karl Scholz said it’s going to take a three-pronged effort to address the challenges the university faces, such as the need for additional resources and the increasingly polarized view of the value of higher education.
University of Pittsburgh provost Ann Cudd sees higher education’s potential to inspire people and create knowledge that benefits the world.
UW-Madison leaders hoping to convince a sometimes skeptical public and their elected representatives of the value of higher education need to come prepared with a few key arguments and stay on message, one of the five finalists for the university’s chancellorship said during a public forum Thursday.
UW-Madison chancellor finalist Ann Cudd is troubled by the statistics that show a large swath of the public believe leading research universities are headed in the wrong direction. “Top research universities need to both ensure and better communicate that most of their students actually graduate on time and their return on investment is, financially and socially, very highly beneficial,” she said.
Jennifer Mnookin, dean of the UCLA School of Law, says the Wisconsin Idea can serve as a national and global model for public universities. One of five finalists for University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor, Mnookin said the university’s tenet of education extending beyond the classroom has even benefitted her own family.
In a public forum at the Memorial Union on Monday, Reed spoke about how he’d approach the chancellor position. Drawing from his experiences in academia and the corporate world, he said he would use the opportunity to help UW-Madison “define the future of higher education.”
Mnookin, who is one of five finalists vying to become the next UW-Madison chancellor, said she donated a kidney to her father in late 2020. The organ made its way from Los Angeles, where Mnookin leads the University of California Los Angeles law school, to her dad in Boston thanks to a solution developed at UW-Madison that extends the time that an organ can be safely stored outside of a body
As a computer science professor, Daniel Reed often turns to data when arguing about the value of a college degree. But sometimes, he said, those who need convincing don’t want more data points or details. The UW-Madison chancellor finalist said one of the more successful models in advocating for the university is relying on the campus community — the students learning in class, the faculty making life-changing discoveries — to tell that story.
Five finalists have been named in the search for the next University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank, the second-longest serving leader of the state’s flagship university, will step down in at the end of May to become the president of Northwestern University in Illinois.
The finalists include Ann Cudd, a University of Pittsburgh provost, senior vice chancellor and professor; Marie Miranda, a University of Notre Dame professor and former provost; Jennifer Mnookin, law school dean and professor at University of California, Los Angeles; Daniel Reed, a University of Utah professor and former provost and John Karl Scholz, a UW-Madison provost and professor.
The list released Wednesday — comprising two men and three women — includes no politicians and just one candidate with known ties to the university. Another candidate spent several years working in a leadership position at a large corporation but, like the others, has spent most of his career in academia.
Five academics have been named finalists for the role of University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor, the UW System announced Wednesday.
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said after being in “deep trouble” in 2015, the university today is in “very strong shape” when it comes to attracting and retaining faculty.
Rebecca Blank has been the chancellor of UW Madison since 2013, steering the university through the pandemic, an imposed tuition freeze, and growing awareness of social justice issues. We have an exit interview with the chancellor as she leaves to become the president of Northwestern University.
More than 75 people attended a reception to honor outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank hosted by legislators at the Wisconsin State Capitol Tuesday afternoon.
Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank cited lagging state support, a lack of administrative autonomy and increasing political divisions as major challenges facing Wisconsin’s flagship university during a fiery speech to the UW Board of Regents Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin System Board on Thursday approved 2% raises for the system president and all chancellors, adding a total of $87,250 to the base salaries of the group of 14 college leaders this year.
The UW Board of Regents approved 2% raises for chancellors and the University of Wisconsin System president in a closed-door meeting on Thursday. The $87,250 in leadership raises range from $12,123 for UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank to $4,669 for UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. Raises for chancellors do not require legislative approval.
In her farewell address to the UW Board of Regents Thursday, Rebecca Blank also took aim at state involvement in campus building projects, criticized some “one-size-fits-all” University of Wisconsin System policies and again called for raising in-state undergraduate tuition.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s outgoing chancellor is warning regents that the state’s bitter political polarization is the greatest threat to the school’s existence.
Jerome Chazen, a UW-Madison graduate who went on to co-found Liz Claiborne Inc., and donated $25 million to fund the expansion of the campus art museum named after him and his wife, died Sunday at age 94. “Jerry was deeply devoted to the arts and to education,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a press release, adding that Chazen was someone who found great joy in introducing new audiences to the art world.
Emails obtained by The Washington Post reveal that Schlissel may not have understood the full extent of public records laws. In an email conversation with Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Schlissel suggested that Blank could delete emails to avoid potential FOIA disclosures.
“Mark and others—please note that anything that arrives in or is sent from my email can be requested as a public record. I know I’m not the only one for whom this is true,” Blank wrote in an email, according to the Post report. She was alluding to the fact that each state has different sunshine laws that dictate which records can be made publicly available.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told a faculty committee during a Monday meeting that she didn’t know what percentage of the campus community is boosted beyond those who received it at University Health Services. The university will be encouraging students and staff to report if they have been boosted off-campus to get a better picture of booster status across UW-Madison.
Staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison want a chancellor with a diverse background who understands the importance of all those who work on campus, rather than one who values only faculty and students.
The university announced on Thursday upcoming dates for a series of listening sessions that will take place throughout January, hosted by a 21-person search committee of Regent members, community representatives, administrators, students and faculty.
The committee leading the search for the new University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor is holding listening sessions for the UW-Madison community this month.
University of Wisconsin System officials have dramatically increased salary ranges for top leaders, giving them more leverage as they search for the next system president and UW-Madison chancellor.
The tentative timeline, laid out for the first time by search committee chair Karen Walsh, includes an application deadline in mid-March, semifinalist interviews in mid-April, campus finalist visits during the first week of May and a recommendation to the full UW Board of Regents by mid-May.
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and UW Board of Regents President Ed Manydeeds on Thursday identified 21 people across the UW-Madison campus and broader Madison community to serve on a committee searching for Rebecca Blank’s successor. Blank departs next summer to become president of Northwestern University.
In introducing him at a June 2 event at the Kohl Center, Blank said she was convinced that McIntosh was the person to lead the athletic department for the next 10 to 20 years through changes to the college athletics landscape.
By all accounts, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank brought much-needed administrative skills to an organization that had taken its share of hits.
But now that she’s headed to the top job at Northwestern University the future of the state’s flagship university — and in some sense, of the state itself — hangs on one key question:
Will the Board of Regents bring in another administrative guru or will it seek out a leader who can finally unlock the potential we all know is there? Someone who can oversee the translation of UW-Madison’s world-class technology into world-class applications for the global marketplace.
Rebecca M. Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has been named president of Northwestern University. She will be the first woman to serve as president of the university, and will succeed Morton O. Schapiro after he steps down next summer.
The top two jobs in the University of Wisconsin System are turning over within months of each other next year, a major leadership shake-up that comes on the heels of new chancellors installed during the pandemic at nearly half of the regional campuses and amid a variety of other challenges.
Next summer, Blank will take on a new role as president of Northwestern University, and a new leader will eventually take the reins at UW-Madison. While students on campus had mixed reactions to this week’s announcement, ranging from excitement to disinterest, some shared personal memories of Blank. Many also felt hopeful about the change.
With significant financial support from Marv and Jeff Levy, two brothers and alumni at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the George L. Mosse Humanities building will soon be called Irving and Dorothy Levy Hall.
UW-Madison announced on Wednesday a $20 million donation for a new academic building that will help clear the way for the demolition of the Humanities Building.
When outgoing UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank leaves for Northwestern University this summer, the UW System and its most high profile leaders are likely to be new to the job as they continue to work against the prevailing trends of declining state support and demographic changes in Wisconsin.
“Northwestern is a school that I have known and admired for years. Its reputation as a top-rated educational and research institution has grown each decade,” Blank wrote. “It will be my mission to make sure the institution’s reputation and quality continues to accelerate.”
“Leading UW–Madison and serving the people of Wisconsin has been an honor and a privilege,” Blank said. “Now it’s time to let someone else step into leadership. I have many connections with Northwestern and am excited about this new opportunity.”
Blank highlighted UW-Madison’s designation as a “Green Ribbon School,” the first of the Big Ten to earn such an award. Reducing environmental impacts and costs, improving the health and wellness of faculty and staff and providing effective environmental and sustainability education are components considered in the selection of Green Ribbon schools.
Blank has been with UW-Madison since 2013. Prior to her tenure at UW-Madison, Blank worked in three different presidential administrations, was dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and was a member of Northwestern University’s faculty as the director of the Joint Center for Poverty Research.
The second-longest serving chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will step down in May next year to become the first female president of Illinois’ Northwestern University.
Northwestern announced Blank’s selection Monday, where she will succeed Northwestern’s 17th president Morton Schapiro. Blank will become the first female president in Northwestern University history.
The university announced Monday morning that Blank will become the next president of Northwestern University starting in summer 2022, where she will make history as the institution’s first woman president. She will replace long-time president Morton Schapiro, who assumed leadership in 2009 and announced his departure from Northwestern in March.
Blank, who announced Monday she is leaving to become president of Northwestern University in 2022, was named chancellor here in February 2013 when she was acting secretary of commerce under President Obama. Now she is leaving, and the consensus among insiders I spoke with Monday was that (a) she’s done an excellent job of navigating UW through exceptionally challenging times and (b) finding a replacement of her stature may prove profoundly difficult.
Northwestern University announced today that Rebecca M. Blank will become its next president, beginning in the summer of 2022. Blank is currently the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a post she has held for eight years.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become the first female president of Northwestern University, the suburban Chicago school announced Monday.
Rebecca Blank, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, will step down this summer to take up the presidency at Northwestern University, the private research institution announced Monday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank will leave the university at the end of the school year to become the first female president of Northwestern University.
Blank became chancellor of UW-Madison in 2013. She has deep ties to Northwestern and the Chicago area, serving as a faculty member from 1989 to 1999 and directing the Joint Center for Poverty Research. She was married in Chicago and her daughter attended Northwestern as a student.
After months of grim financial forecasts, University of Wisconsin System leaders presented a much rosier financial outlook this week as campuses settle into another school year shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent coverage of the University of Wisconsin-Madison asserts that students and administrators are overly sensitive and reactionary, falsely pursuing small, insignificant symbols, rather than supporting significant goals of racial equity and not maligning an alumnus.
Cardona will double down on Wisconsin today. First, he’s scheduled to visit Eau Claire for an elementary school tour and pep rally alongside local Superintendent Michael Johnson. He’ll then travel south for a stop at the flagship University of Wisconsin-Madison with school Chancellor Rebecca Blank.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited the UW-Madison campus Monday as part of his “Return to School Road Trip” across the Midwest to talk up the Biden administration’s efforts to get students back into classrooms safely.
