Lawmakers slipped language into state budget allowing UW leaders to come from outside academia

Karen Herzog | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Language quietly slipped into the proposed state budget would allow someone from outside academia to become the University of Wisconsin System's next president or a campus chancellor, potentially moving politics and business interests squarely into future searches for top university leaders.

While public university leaders traditionally have come from academia, a few politically appointed governing boards for universities elsewhere around the country have tapped businessmen or politicians.

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue University, the Iowa Board of Regents two years ago chose a businessman with little experience in academia as president of the University of Iowa and University of Colorado President Bruce Benson made millions in oil, but his formal education ended with a bachelor's degree.

The most common road to the presidency continues to be the traditional route of academic affairs (43%), according to a study released last week by the American Council on Education. Only 15% of college and university presidents came directly from outside of higher education in the ACE study, down from 20% in 2011.

At age 69, UW System President Ray Cross said he has no immediate plans to retire. There also are no indications UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank is looking to move.

But faculty at Wisconsin's flagship campus still want the co-chairs of the Legislature's powerful budget-writing committee to remove the language before concluding its work on the 2017-'19 state budget. They noted it was first made public the day the Joint Finance Committee approved the UW System's budget, there was no public hearing about it and it's unclear which lawmaker added it.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), whose name is on the portion of the budget bill involving the UW System, said the language came from the Assembly, but she did not know who proposed it.

The language in the budget bill, which still must be passed by the Legislature, prohibits the UW System's governing Board of Regents from adopting a policy or rule stating only individuals who are faculty members granted tenure by a university, or who hold terminal degrees, could be considered for appointment as UW System president or chancellor or vice chancellor of a UW institution.

While Cross and all chancellors within the UW System came directly from academia, there is no Board of Regents policy or rule requiring a tenured faculty rank or terminal degree for a top academic leader. The language in the budget bill would keep it that way.

UW-Madison's own Faculty Policies and Procedures, however, require the rank of tenured faculty for the flagship's chancellor, provost and any vice chancellor to whom the chancellor delegates responsibility for academic program and faculty personnel policies.

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"This requirement underlies the need for incumbents to have experience, preparation, and understanding of universities, paralleling leadership qualifications demanded by most industries," says a letter the UW-Madison Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate sent Tuesday to the GOP co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee, Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren.

"This requirement is among the reasons why UW-Madison is consistently ranked one of the top universities in the world," the letter says.

Most top-tier research institutions do have faculty credentials as a requirement for their presidents, said Shelly Storbeck, managing partner for Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, the executive search firm with offices in Pennsylvania and California that helped UW-Madison find its current chancellor, provost, chief financial officer and business dean.

"It has been important to top-tier institutions to have someone who is credible in the eyes of faculty to lead the institution," Storbeck said.

Job descriptions for university system presidents, on the other hand, may not require faculty credentials because it may be more important for that candidate to deftly maneuver in the political realm, Storbeck said. For example, University of California President Janet Napolitano is a former Arizona governor and was a U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration.

Regardless, qualifications for university presidents and chancellors typically fall exclusively under the purview of university governing boards, not state lawmakers, said Aims McGuinness, a senior fellow with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Boulder, Colo.

McGuinness said he wasn't aware of any other state Legislature prohibiting a board of regents from determining job qualifications for its campus leaders, including academic credentials.