Regents approve chancellor search

The search for a new UW–Madison chancellor is officially under way.

The UW System Board of Regents Friday, April 7, approved the search for a new chief executive to replace David Ward, who is stepping down at the end of the year. Ward will take a sabbatical in 2001 and then return to the faculty as a geography professor.

Related story: Ward to step down as chancellor

UW System President Katharine Lyall says the search will be national and international in scope. She plans to assemble a search and screen committee by the end of April and hire a new chancellor by the end of the year.

The regents will seek a salary for the new chancellor that exceeds the current maximum for Ward’s pay range. The chancellor’s 1999-2000 salary is $193,000, and the regents want to set a salary range for the new chancellor between $244,534 and $298,874.

The maximum salary is frozen for 2000-01, but the UW System’s search request says it is hoped that the Department of Employment Relations secretary and Joint Committee on Employment Relations will reconsider that maximum.

The median salary for Ward’s peer group this year is $275,004. According to UW System figures, Ward is the second-lowest paid chancellor among his peer group.

In related news, the regents on Friday unanimously approved a new named professorship for Chancellor Ward. He will become the Charles Kendall Adams Professor Jan. 1.