Leadership highlights

The leadership and energy that Chancellor Biddy Martin brought to her job as the campus’s chief executive officer helped shape the university as it faced the challenges of the 21^st century. Among the initiatives pursued under her leadership:

Advancing undergraduate education

UW-Madison students are reaping the rewards of a campuswide effort, championed by Martin, to boost the value, quality and affordability of an undergraduate education.

Approved by the Board of Regents in 2009, the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates (MIU) uses a supplemental tuition charge to invest in the quality of the undergraduate experience while vastly expanding the pool of need-based aid available for UW-Madison students and their families.

It uses a combination of tuition and private philanthropy through the Great People Scholarship Campaign to increase need-based financial aid.

It also adds 80 faculty positions in the areas hardest hit by state budget cuts during the past decade, with priority given to areas with the greatest student need or demand.

MIU also promotes curricular innovation, has helped expand the number of first-year interest groups and programming in residential learning communities, and will improve the campus’s student advising system.

Reorganizing research

The chancellor’s efforts also responded to calls for a more effective organization of research administration. The university is in the process of implementing the changes. Last week, officials announced finalists for the new position of vice chancellor for research/dean of the Graduate School, a job that will help ensure compliance and increased support for UW-Madison’s research enterprise.

Diversity efforts

Martin made diversity a central part of each core element of the university’s strategic plan. More aggressive efforts to diversify the faculty and the student body were central to the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates and are part of the condition for funding.

In her first year as chancellor, Martin protected diversity programs from budget cuts and took steps to do the same in the 2011-13 budget cycle.

Under her leadership, UW-Madison has also added funding to the Posse Program. The university now has more Posse scholars from more cities than any other university, and recently added a science posse from New York City.

Martin also made new funding available to the Office of Enrollment Management to support more active recruitment of a more diverse student body.

Enhanced programs in China

Martin made two trips to China, a 13-day trip in spring 2010 and a 12-day journey to China and Taipei in fall 2010.

The visits helped the university develop relationships with universities, businesses and government officials. As a result, the university established a pre-college summer program for high school students at UW-Madison, consolidated already existing relationships, enhanced its visibility and established the Chinese Champions program.

Go Big Read

Martin established a common-reading program called Go Big Read that is entering its third year and has provided the campus and surrounding community with avenues for intellectual exchange. Each book generates a yearlong series of events and activities, and the book is used a number of courses, from freshman seminars to upper-level courses.

The choice for the 2011-12 academic year is “Enrique’s Journey,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario.

Support for the humanities and social sciences

The chancellor worked with Don Randel, president of the Mellon Foundation and then-Gov. Jim Doyle to raise $20 million in unrestricted funding for the humanities — with $10 million from the foundation and a matching contribution from the state. It was announced in December 2010.

In Martin’s second year at UW-Madison, she reallocated state funding to provide 50 additional graduate fellowships for top humanities departments. She also made a successful request of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the UW Foundation for additional graduate student funding, a portion of which will support the social sciences and humanities.

During her tenure, the campus was also involved in a string of events marking both a Year of the Humanities and a Year of the Arts.

Fundraising

Martin has worked closely with the leadership of the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Association on closer alignment of goals and a stronger emphasis on annual giving.

Among other efforts, she has increased institutional grant aid by 226 percent, making it the university’s and the foundation’s highest university-wide priority.

New Badger Partnership

In her third year as chancellor, Martin led an initiative to change the business model for UW-Madison to provide more autonomy and flexibility. The governor, in his 2011-13 budget proposal, proposed the university be structured under a public-authority model.

Although the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance did not include the public-authority model in its version of the state budget, it did provide varying degrees of flexibilities valuable to the university.

Earlier in June, Martin said this of the New Badger Partnership: “During the past few months, we have sparked and contributed to a statewide conversation about the future of higher education in Wisconsin. We have begun the work that will strengthen our position as a world-class educational and research institution, offering opportunity, development, job creation and an economic engine for the citizens of the state of Wisconsin and beyond. The legislators’ proposal provides UW-Madison and other UW System campuses with a promising first step.”

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery

As chancellor and a member of the WARF board of directors, Martin participated in the selection of themes for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery and helped with the late stages of administrative implementation for an initiative that was developed under the leadership of former Chancellor John Wiley.

The facility, which opened in December 2010, houses twin interdisciplinary research institutes: the Morgridge Institute for Research, a private, not-for-profit research institute dedicated to improving human health by accelerating scientific discovery to patient delivery; and the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, which is part of UW–Madison organized under its Graduate School. The state-of-the-art facility brings together scientists and researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, education, business and law.

Relationship building

Since coming to Madison, the chancellor has moved to strengthen relationships between the university and key constituent groups ranging from students to alumni and policymakers.

She created a new position, a vice chancellor for university relations, whose responsibility includes oversight and coordination of state and community relations and communications.

She has established a strong working relationship with student groups and student government leaders, built positive relationships in the state Legislature with elected officials from both sides of the aisle and made important connections in the Madison community.

Martin has also worked to strengthen the working relationships among deans, and between the deans and university administration. Under her leadership, the university has appointed two deans. In her own office, she also established an Advisory Board to the Chancellor, made up of key alumni and supporters of the university.