A search committee from the University of Wisconsin System is working on the search for a new chancellor for UW-Whitewater. They facilitated listening sessions from 2 – 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12 and 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13 in the Timmerman Auditorium of Hyland Hall.

“The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents are tasked with hiring chancellors by the UW System along with a committee from the campuses working together to find a pool of candidates.” said Search and Screen Committee Chair Regent Amy Bogost. “We are in the process right now, we have not begun to review that pool, but we will in the beginning of next week. But as a committee we will be going over the pool of candidates and having discussions over the candidates on which ones are floating to the top. Hopefully we get a great pool of candidates. Once they are put forward to the Board of Regents, then this committee will finalize the decisions.”

The committee asked campus and community members to bring questions about what they want in the new chancellor. The committee asked for input on what key characteristics are desired for the new campus leader, university strengths that the chancellor should have, and what challenges might be of concern with the onboarding of a new chancellor.

“Something unique about the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater is the shared governance and how their groups work together. I like to think of how big and important their voice and role is. Whoever the next chancellor is, I hope will appreciate and utilize that because we want our next chancellor to be incorporating the way we talk about our institution to help someone succeed,” said Faculty Senate Chair Tracy Hawkins.

Four main questions guided the sessions: What experiences are desired in the next UW-W chancellor? What qualities do you desire for the chancellor? What do you hope the next chancellor will help accomplish with the campus? What do you hope the next chancellor will prioritize?

“From the information we gathered so far, people want to see experience in higher education. The qualities in a chancellor include a lot of different skills. Topics discussed included campus accomplishments, recruitment and retention of everyone on campus. As well as equity, inclusive work, budgeting and fiscal assistance to help accomplish them,” said Vice Chair Lynn Gilbertson, Associate Professor and Department Chair in the College of Education and Professional Studies. “The priorities mentioned were to help us accomplish stability, fiscal management, prepare for the future, retain and support the people involved in our workplace.”