Hello, Biddy! UW-Madison's new chancellor arrives on campus

Todd Finkelmeyer  —  8/22/2008 12:15 pm

Incoming UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn "Biddy" Martin moved to town last week -- and her belongings finally arrived at Olin House, the official residence of the chancellor, on Monday.

"I've started the process of unpacking and moving in," said Martin. "It's a lot of work but I've cleared a path from my bedroom to the coffee maker, and I thought maybe that would do for now."

Martin spent the previous 20-plus years at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and had been provost -- the university's chief academic officer and chief operating officer -- since 2000. While at Cornell, Martin helped raise $110 million for a life science building and developed a program to make financial aid available to students. She also put together a plan to retain faculty -- a hot button issue for UW-Madison as well.

Martin is familiar with UW-Madison. She was a lecturer at the university in the early 1980s and earned her doctorate in German literature from the school in 1985.

Martin is the first outside candidate to be named UW-Madison chancellor since 1988, when Donna Shalala was hired away from Hunter College in New York. Then-Provost David Ward replaced Shalala in 1993, and then-Provost John Wiley replaced Ward as UW-Madison chancellor in 2001.

As chancellor, Martin will be the chief executive officer of UW-Madison, responsible for all of its programs. UW-Madison, one of the nation's top research universities, has about 40,000 students, 16,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion.

Before officially replacing Wiley on Sept. 1, Martin sat down in Bascom Hall with The Capital Times on Wednesday to talk about a range of topics. An edited transcript follows.

CT: How have you spent your summer -- both wrapping up your role as provost at Cornell and looking ahead to your new position at UW-Madison?

Martin: Just trying to finish up what needs to be done at Cornell and helping with the transition there from me to an interim provost. I've visited here a couple of times in an effort to get to know the people I'll be working with and I've met with some legislators and the governor.

CT: By all accounts, you loved your time in Madison. Yet you built your career and put an enormous amount of time and energy into Cornell. Ultimately, how difficult was it to leave New York?

Martin: I'm sure the appropriate answer is to say it was really hard. But actually it has felt great. It has felt great. I really love it here. I arrived on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning I got to go to the Farmers' Market and the free concert at the Overture Center and to wander around. It's a great walking city. So I'm really happy.

CT: Do you plan to bring any staff with you from Cornell to UW-Madison to help with the transition?

Martin: No, I'm not. I'm counting on my colleagues at Wisconsin to help me.

CT: Perhaps one of the biggest differences between UW-Madison and Cornell is the difference between fielding Big Ten Conference athletic teams vs. Ivy League teams. For better or worse, Badger sports are a big deal for many on campus and in the community. How do you view the role of college sports at UW-Madison, and have you met yet with athletic director Barry Alvarez?

Martin: I went to lunch with Barry this summer and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm really looking forward to my working relationship with Barry. I'm a big sports fan, and as the newspapers have emphasized, I come from a family of football coaches and was an athlete of some talent myself a long, long time ago. So I will be an enthusiastic Badger fan. Obviously, athletics is a wonderful source of spirit with the students, the staff, the faculty and the community. The important thing is to ensure that athletics is run well, that the students do well academically as well as on the playing fields. So that they have a great experience athletically, and that the athletics department -- as is the case with all other departments at the university -- is run with a very strong sense of principle and integrity.

CT: The Associated Press ran a story this week about how more than 100 college president and chancellors have signed a petition asking lawmakers to look into lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying the 21 age actually encourages dangerous binge drinking, oftentimes at off-campus parties. I noticed Cornell didn't sign on, and Ripon College is the only Wisconsin college to sign the petition. What is your take on the idea of lowering the drinking age?

Martin: I'm not ready to take a firm position. We have discussed the possible benefits of lowering the drinking age at Cornell, where we've had years and years of efforts to think about how to address the binge drinking problem. And I know there have been some very serious discussions here as well. Where the university should come out on that issue, I don't know.

CT: I understand you've had a lot of contact with John Wiley this summer. What kinds of things have you talked about, and has he given you any advice?

Martin: He's just been extremely accessible and open to briefing me on the kinds of open issues that he imagines I'll need to continue dealing with once he has stepped down. Primarily that.

CT: What excites you most about becoming UW-Madison chancellor?

Martin: The best way to sum it up is the excellence of the university and the variety and complexity of its many activities and units.

CT: How would you describe your leadership style?

Martin: I would say they can expect me to be open. In particular, open about my principles -- the principles that I think should guide my leadership and the university's future. As transparent as possible. Decisive when I reach the point where I think I've consulted adequately with the community and its various leaders.

CT: Not only has John Wiley been leading UW-Madison for the past seven years, but in many ways the UW has had a continuous administration since Donna Shalala became chancellor in 1988. In 1993, Shalala was replaced by provost David Ward, and Wiley moved on to provost. And then Wiley became chancellor in 2001. What are some negatives about being an outsider of sorts, and what are some positives?

Martin: I don't know if I'd characterize them as negatives, but I'd say it's certainly the case that I'll have a steeper learning curve than would somebody who has been working in academic administration here for a very long time. The advantage I think is that I can bring a pair of fresh eyes. I'm familiar with the university, having studied here. But, obviously, having been away for over 20 years means that I have a view of it that's primarily from the outside. I think what I bring that might be useful and invigorating is a strong sense of how highly regarded this university is -- not only nationally, but internationally -- and sometimes it's easy to forget that on the inside.

CT: Being away for 20 years, does it seem like more things have changed -- or more things stayed the same?

Martin: That probably remains to be seen to some extent. What's changed a lot is the city, the development of the city and the physical look of the campus. It's greatly expanded and it looks different. And what the university can offer as a consequence of these new facilities is extraordinary and that's a significant change. Many of the things I've loved about the place remain -- the natural beauty, the expanse of the campus and the sense of fun that characterizes the city.

CT: The general consensus seems to be that one of your biggest challenges will be establishing a good working relationship with state lawmakers, some of whom have made a habit of ripping UW-Madison whenever the opportunity arises. What will your approach be to dealing with the state legislature?

Martin: Well my approach would be the same as my approach to dealing with anyone else or any other group. And that is to say I feel optimistic about establishing good working relationships with the legislature and I look forward to working with them in an open and straightforward and forthcoming way.

CT: Some lawmakers and their assistants, almost immediately after you were hired, took the opportunity to criticize your record at Cornell, saying you focused too much on a politically correct agenda and diversity initiatives, and they criticized your academic work as being heavily focused on gay, lesbian and transgender issues. How do you build relationships with people who go out of their way to make statements like that before you've had a chance to meet them one-on-one?

Martin: I think the best way to deal with any and everyone who is not yet familiar with me is to get to know them and to give them opportunities to get to know me, and that I think is going to be the key.

CT: Another hot-button topic is the large number of professors leaving UW-Madison for seemingly greener pastures. How do you plan to address this issue?

Martin: It requires some careful study. I want some really good data on the situation and trends. I think it's going to be crucial that we address the faculty salary problem and what I would like to do, and intend to do, is work with my colleagues to develop a long-term plan.

CT: Fundraising is becoming an increasingly important issue and being a good fund raiser seems to be part of the job description of a chancellor today. What are some of your ideas on models for funding higher education and about what percentage of your time do you think will be spent on this important task?

Martin: I think they have to go on a parallel. More and more universities, virtually all research universities in this country, rely on a mix of revenue sources. It's been true for some time and it's increasingly true that even our great public universities and land grant institutions rely heavily on private funds. So it will be very important for me to get out and raise funds for the university and that will be a very high priority. I don't know what percentage of time that will take. It will depend on how things are organized here. But I'll do whatever is needed to make sure we're mixing our revenue sources. Madison already has a very strong set of revenue sources in addition to state funding and tuition. And those include research funds and funding that comes back to the university from the development of technologies and the transfer of those technologies into business and commercial ventures.

CT: With near-constant budget issues, I've heard it tossed out that, perhaps, UW-Madison is trying to be too many things for too many people. Is it possible that you might have to look at something and say, the UW simply can't do this or that anymore?

Martin: I wouldn't go so far right now as to say there are things that we simply won't be able to do anymore because that's premature. What's important for every institution of higher learning, given the costs and the limits on revenues, is to set priorities and make sometimes difficult decisions about how to allocate resources. We have to be in the process of doing that continually.

CT: You've talked about the importance of having a diverse campus. What exactly is diversity, and how exactly do you go about bringing that change?

Martin: There are many, many, many forms of diversity, from the diversity that very frequently gets associated with a mix of people from a variety of different backgrounds -- national backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, racial backgrounds. But there's also the heterogeneity of ideas, which is one of the reasons why diversity of people is so important. So I'd say the diversity of ideas and the diversity of people is one of the great benefits of a university campus. In an increasingly global world and economy, it's all the more important that all of our students have access to peers who come from everywhere in the world and help them familiarize themselves with cultures, social norms and ideas that they simply wouldn't get to know otherwise.

CT: A lot has been written about your being the first openly gay leader of UW-Madison. How important are lesbian, gay and transgender issues to you, and do you consider yourself a role model of sorts?

Martin: What's important to me is that every student, every staff member and every faculty member at the university have an equal opportunity to flourish. So to the extent that I can be helpful in any way to any particular community, it will be part of the overall effort to ensure that everyone has the possibility of thriving at this university. So gay and lesbian issues are important in that broader context, but that's one among many issues that not only I, but the campus as a whole, will want to address insofar as there are communities that feel less well-served than they could.

CT: Speaking in broad strokes, do you have two or three themes or initiatives you'd like to start moving forward in your first couple months on campus?

Martin: Two things I'll work immediately to generate ideas and study on will be financial aid for students to keep the university affordable and accessible regardless of economic circumstance, which is a passion of mine. And in addition to that, the recruitment and retention of the world-class faculty that we have.

Todd Finkelmeyer  —  8/22/2008 12:15 pm