Regents may name new chancellor this week

The UW System Board of Regents is expected to name a chancellor for UW–Madison as soon as this Friday.

A committee of the board has interviewed the finalists and the full board is expected to choose a chancellor when it meets Friday, Nov. 10, in Madison. Those deliberations will not be open to the public.

The appointment would be effective Jan. 1. The finalists, their titles and current institutions are:

• Nancy E. Cantor, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
• Susan Westerberg Prager, provost and chief academic officer, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
• John D. Wiley, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, UW–Madison.

The successful candidate will succeed David Ward, who has served as UW–Madison chancellor since 1993.

The special committee, chaired by Regent President Jay Smith, includes regents JoAnne Brandes, Guy Gottschalk, Frederick E. Mohs and Jose A. Olivieri. The full Board of Regents normally takes final action once it receives a recommendation from the special committee.

A 21-member UW–Madison campus/community search and screen committee, chaired by Bernice Durand, professor of physics, submitted its recommendations for finalists to UW System President Katharine Lyall on Oct. 24. The committee arranged and hosted two on-campus receptions for each finalist.

The person chosen by the regents will become the 27th leader of the campus.

Cantor is a professor of psychology who previously served as dean of the School of Graduate Studies and as vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Michigan in 1996-97. She chaired the Department of Psychology, Princeton University, from 1992-96.

She studies social psychology. Cantor is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prager is the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor of Law and previously served as dean of the School of Law at UCLA from 1982-98. She was associate dean of the school from 1979-82. She studies family law. She also has been a trustee at Stanford University and in 1986 was president of the Association of American Law Schools.

Wiley is a professor of electrical and computer engineering who served as dean of the Graduate School at UW–Madison from 1989-94. He also has worked as associate dean (research) for the College of Engineering from 1986-89.

He studies physics. Wiley is a member of the National Advisory Committee to the Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel, National Research Council. He is a director of Venture Investors of Wisconsin and of the WIYN (Telescope) Corporation.