Provost Peter Spear is ready to lead

He was well-known for his hard work as a researcher and instructor, but 10 years ago, Peter Spear did not think of himself as the future provost of the university.

“As a professor, I was quite well-known for avoiding administrative work at all costs,” Spear says. “All I wanted was to do my research, teach and work with students.”

Today, as the university’s second-in-charge, Spear has little doubt that a winding career path with some unexpected sharp turns molded him into an administrator ready to leave his mark on UW–Madison.

Spear’s higher education experience began when he enrolled at Rutgers University in 1962 with a dream of one day going to law school. He says he majored in psychology mainly because it had the fewest prerequisites, allowing him the freedom to get a broad liberal arts education.

Just before the stressful task of applying to law schools began, Spear took a part-time job as an undergraduate research assistant, and that’s when something changed. He says he was bitten by the “research bug.”

“I wanted to learn how the brain works,” Spear says. “I wanted to know how neurons allow us to see and experience motion, color and size.”

Spear deserted his dream of being an attorney and spent the next 25 years of his life trying to answer those questions.

After obtaining a Ph.D. in physiological psychology from Yale University, he conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and held a faculty position at Kansas State before landing a faculty position at UW–Madison in 1976.

At UW–Madison, he gained national recognition as a leading neuroscientist. He racked up numerous research grants and wrote more than 90 publications, including a textbook titled “Psychology: Perspectives on Behavior.”

But Spear wanted nothing to do with administrative work, fearing it would interfere with his teaching and research. He resisted attempts by colleagues to make him chair of the department of psychology. He says he was finally coerced into taking the job when no one else would do it.

“To my surprise, I enjoyed it,” Spears says. “To everyone’s surprise, I was good at it.”

It didn’t take long for others to notice Spear’s leadership skills. After chairing his department for four years, Spear was offered an associate dean’s job in the College of Letters and Science.

Much like the research bug had bitten him 25 years ago, Spear found that the administrative bug was equally hard to shake.

Spear left UW–Madison in 1996 to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder, a decision that meant more than a change of scenery.

“I knew if I was named dean, I would have to give up my research,” Spear says. “But it also gave me the chance to help improve the academic programs in a major public research university.”

Spear and his wife, Meredith, a facilities planner for an international consulting firm, decided they would live out their lives in Boulder. The couple determined that achieving a higher administrative role at another university wouldn’t be a goal.

But then, some old friends and colleagues from UW–Madison — some of the same people who once convinced him to become department chair — began calling, hoping he would consider returning to Madison as the provost. Again, Spear’s career path would take another unexpected twist.

“Here was the chance to contribute to a world-class institution with high-quality programs across the board, and in a city that both Meredith and I love,” Spear says. “I finally decided to mail my application materials the day before the deadline.”

Spear accepted the job. And then, two weeks before he started, a terrorist attack left thousands dead and gripped the nation. Spear’s wife and son were both in New York at the time, and his son’s girlfriend, who worked in the World Trade Center, found herself running for her life as the twin towers crumbled behind her. “It was a tense time. I did not know for several hours whether they were safe,” Spear says.

Spear arrived at UW–Madison to find the campus community handling the situation quite well. “I think it is a credit to the campus community that that tensions seem fairly low,” Spear says. “The university leadership must continue to make it clear that all belief systems are to be respected and anything less than that will not be tolerated.”

Leading the university in nurturing human resources at all levels — faculty, academic and classified staff, and students — is exactly what Chancellor John Wiley is asking of the new provost. Spear will assist the chancellor in implementing the university’s new strategic plan, which includes among its priorities promoting diversity and encouraging respect toward everyone on campus, regardless of race, religion or job.

Spear says before he left for Colorado, many faculty, academic staff and classified staff were dealing with morale problems. For non-tenure track employees, it meant feeling unappreciated.

“Some staff here have felt a lack of respect for many years,” Spear says. “Part of improving that is treating them with respect and appreciating what they do. Improvements have been made, but more still needs to be done.”

Spear also says he’ll be involved in other aspects of the strategic plan, such as building upon recent improvements in the areas of research and student learning.

“In 1996, the university had gone through a period of budget cuts, including a significant loss of faculty positions. Faculty and academic staff were finding that their salaries were far behind their peers at other universities,” Spear says.

But since then, the Madison Initiative has boosted faculty and staff salaries, adding more than 100 positions. And construction projects like BioStar are building a life-science infrastructure that will revolutionize research and student learning on campus. “While in Colorado, I could see that what was happening on this campus was developing into a model for other institutions and other universities were looking at Madison with envy,” Spear says.

Now, Spear says, UW–Madison can continue to make its mark as a world-class university by making similar improvements for the humanities, arts and social sciences.

“UW-Madison is already one of the top 10 public research universities. We can build upon that level of success and put UW–Madison into the top handful,” Spear says.

But that is another area where the terrorist attacks and their effect on an already shaky economy play a role. Spear says funding for such projects could face tough hurdles if the Legislature finds itself with a tighter budget in the coming years.

Spear says it is ironic that all of these challenges face a man who was once known for his ability to avoid administrative work.

But the new provost believes his love of research and teaching will keep him focused on projects that will continue to make UW–Madison one of the top research universities in the world.

“When I look in the mirror, I still see a faculty member,” he says.