Transcript from Chancellor Wiley’s announcement
Well, I’d like to thank all of you for coming. I thought I’d just create an excuse to get a nice crowd in the Chazen Museum on a Friday afternoon.
About an hour ago, I met with the Regents in closed session and told them that now is the time for them to begin forming a search and screen committee and set the process in motion to try to have a new chancellor ready to take over in September of ’08 – so about nine months from now. For a whole variety of reasons, this is a perfect time for the transition. September 1 is the perfect time.
My family vacated the official residence of the university – Olin House – a little over a year ago to enable it to be renovated. It was built in 1911 and it has never had a real top-to-bottom renovation. The utilities in the house don’t work very well – all kinds of problems. There’s never, on any university campus, any project that’s more controversial than renovations of an official residence. So, one of the commitments I made at the time was that we wouldn’t move back there. Well, I think it’s pretty clear now it’s going to be done in probably no later than August of next summer. July or August. So that’s a perfect time for a new chancellor, a chancellor’s family, to move in.
In addition, we’re up, UW-Madison is up for our decennial reaccredidation by the North Central Association. Our site visit will be in April of ’09. That’s about seven or eight months after September 1; gives the new chancellor plenty of time to take full ownership and have full understanding of the self-study that we will have completed by then and that automatically begins our next 10-year planning cycle. So, it’s a good time from that point of view.
There is no perfect time for any chancellor of this university to take over, in terms of the budget cycle. We’re in a biennial budget cycle – but as far as I can tell from several years now of experience, the best time, if there is a best time, is right halfway through a biennium and September 1 is just about exactly halfway through the ’09-’11 biennium. So it’s good from that point of view.
Taking all these things into account, plus my age, this seems like the right time to have a transition and so that’s what I’m announcing today. And I believe Regent Bradley would like to say a few words.
President of the UW System Board of Regents Mark J. Bradley’s remarks.
Thank you, John. Good afternoon.
John, on behalf of President Kevin Reilly, who is not able to be here, and also on behalf of the Board of Regents of the UW System, I want to say how much we have appreciated your broad, strategic view of the role that the UW-Madison campus has in the larger picture of the UW System.
There are three aspects of John Wiley’s tenure as Chancellor of the Madison campus that I would like to comment on briefly from my perspective as president of the Board of Regents.
First is a very key role that John has played as one chancellor among 14 chancellors. John has been strategic, he’s been generous in working for the benefit of the entire system – realizing that a strong UW-Madison campus does indeed contribute to the vitality of the entire system.
The second aspect of John’s tenure is something that a lot of students on campus might not see, but a lot of other people do, and that is his tireless effort in crisscrossing the country and — in many cases, traveling to foreign countries — to be very instrumental in fundraising for this campus. In today’s world, it is absolutely essential to have that ability if you’re going to be a leader in higher education; to be able to make the message, make the “ask” and get the private sector to contribute, because otherwise we’re not going to be able to sustain our levels of resources that we’ve traditionally enjoyed in higher education. And John has done as good a job of that as, I think, anybody in the United States.
The third aspect of John’s tenure that I would like to comment on is his ability, his commitment to establishing a group of people from the deans, leaders of the schools and the colleges on this campus, to provide strong leadership for the future, setting up the next chancellor of this campus with qualified, dedicated people who are committed to the future of this university. That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens by vision, by leadership and a true commitment from the heart for the vitality of this campus.
We are going to move swiftly on a national search for John’s replacement. President Kevin Reilly will work with the search-and-screen committee that will come from this campus, the faculty and academic staff leadership, to name the search-and-screen committee. This is going to be an extensive, national search. We’re looking for someone, obviously, with impressive credentials, but also someone with comparable leadership abilities to John’s.
Obviously, that person is going to have some very big shoes to fill. Today, after John made his announcement, I asked former Board President David Walsh, and current Regent from Madison, to be the chair of the Regent selection committee. The search-and-screen committee from the campus will make recommendations for finalists and the Regent selection committee, headed by Regent Walsh, will make the final recommendation, in conjunction with President Kevin Reilly, to the full Board of Regents, who will vote on the selection of the new chancellor.
John, thanks very much for your service.