Education

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ― The dean of the school's largest college and top administrators from Michigan, Cornell and Minnesota were named finalists Wednesday to lead the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The two men and two women are vying to replace Chancellor John Wiley, who is stepping down in September after leading the state's flagship university for seven years. Three have professional ties to the school.

The sole internal candidate, Dr. Gary Sandefur, has been dean of the College of Letters and Sciences since 2004.

The other candidates are Dr. Biddy Martin, provost of Cornell University in New York; Dr. Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the University of Minnesota; and Dr. Rebecca Blank, the former dean at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Martin was a UW-Madison lecturer in the early 1980s and earned her doctorate from the school in 1985 in German literature.

Mulcahy is still well-known on campus, where he spent 20 years. He was associate vice chancellor for research policy from 2002 to 2005 before he left for the Minnesota job. He joined the human oncology faculty in 1985 and served as associate dean for biological sciences from 1996 to 2002.

Sandefur oversees 39 departments in the arts and humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in his position as dean. More than half of the school's students are enrolled in his college, which has about 3,000 employees. Sandefur, a sociology professor, also has served in a series of other administrative posts during his 24 years on campus.

Sandefur said he would not be an "abrupt change" from Wiley, who appointed him dean.

"I would love to have the opportunity to serve as chancellor," he said. "It's a great moment for me."

Blank, an economist, was dean of the public policy school at Michigan from 1999 until last year. She is currently on leave and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

A 23-member search and screen committee and a Board of Regents special committee recommended the candidates to UW System President Kevin Reilly. Each will be on campus next week for public meetings and interviews with the regents. Reilly and the regents' committee expect to name their pick soon after, and the regents will confirm the person in June.

The UW-Madison position is the most prestigious of five chancellor posts the regents are trying to fill. Reilly interviewed applicants Wednesday for UW-Whitewater chancellor and finalists are visiting the UW-Parkside campus this week. The system also has to replace departing chancellors at the Green Bay and River Falls campuses.

The next UW-Madison chancellor will lead the state's oldest and largest campus with 40,000 students. One of the nation's top research universities, UW-Madison has more than 16,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion.

The next leader will earn more than Wiley, whose $327,000 annual salary is the lowest among leaders at 11 public universities considered comparable. The regents in February set a pay range of $370,000 to $452,000 per year in an attempt to attract candidates for the job.

Pay was not an issue in the search, faculty secretary David Musolf said. He advised the search committee, which interviewed 10 people in the past few weeks from a pool of 55 applicants.

"I think it's a terrific pool. Their experience really speaks for them. I think it's four really great individuals," Musolf said. "By recommending those individuals, the committee is saying they are all qualified to be chancellor at UW-Madison."

Not included among the finalists were other internal candidates who had been mentioned in connection with the job, including Provost Patrick Farrell and Business School Dean Mike Knetter.

Bill Steffenhagen, president of a group that represents academic staff, said he has worked with Mulcahy and Sandefur and both are strong candidates.

"From an academic staff standpoint, I think Sandefur is well respected and well-liked. I would call him a team builder," he said. "As for Mulcahy, I always found him to look for solutions that accomplished objectives without a lot of extra administrative baggage."

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