May 29. 2008 2:00AM - Last modified: March 14. 2012 2:47PM

Committee picks Martin to be next UW chancellor

  

Carolyn "Biddy" Martin is the choice of a special Board of Regents committee to become the next chancellor at that University of Wisconsin in Madison.

If approved by the full Board of Regents in early June, Martin would succeed chancellor John Wiley, who announced last December that he will retire in September.

Martin, who has served as provost at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., since 2000, said UW-Madison plays a key role in educating students for a changing economy, building ties to state residents, and as an engine for the state's economy.

"Our public mission makes access and affordability of higher education, the quality of the faculty, and their contributions to the state, nation and world that much more essential," she said. "As a research institution, UW-Madison is poised to provide solutions to some of the world's greatest challenges while preserving, reinterpreting and invigorating the core of human knowledge."

The university's ability to compete for and retain some of the most talented teachers and researchers is critical to its mission, she said.

"Faculty salaries will be a very high priority for me, and I hope to be able to start working immediately with UW System, the governor, the Legislature and the UW Foundation and alumni to develop a plan," she said. "It's not just Wisconsin that faces retention issues. We are facing extraordinary competition for the best faculty over the next 10 to 20 years, because of the now-retiring bulge of faculty that were hired in the 1960s and 1970s. All institutions are going to face much stronger competition for their best scholars and scientists. It's critical to get ourselves in a position where faculty are appropriately rewarded and supported to meet this problem head-on and from a position of strength."


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