After 13 years of keeping the UW System afloat through financial difficulties and ultimately a budget crisis, UW System President Katharine Lyall announced her retirement Wednesday.
Lyall's retirement, beginning in August, means the job of overseeing the eighth largest university system in the country will be open, and Regent President Toby Marcovich said regents have yet to consider who will fill the presidency.
\I would hope this would be a very attractive opportunity,"" Lyall said.
But Marcovich was vague about whether the system will be able to attract the nation's best leaders in light of drained finances plaguing all system schools.
""I have no guarantee,"" Marcovich said about providing a competitive salary. ""Time will tell.""
Lyall added that shrinking state resources will also be her successor's biggest challenge once in office.
Though Lyall announced last spring the UW System would face an approximate $250 million budget cut for this academic year, Marcovich said Lyall will leave the institution in far better condition than it was when she started her tenure in 1991.
""Despite dwindling resources, she has made the system more accountable to its stakeholders by improving student success, efficiency and public service,"" Chancellor John Wiley said in a statement.
With the addition of a regents project, ""Charting a New Course for the UW System,"" aimed at implementing new ways to pull the system out of financial turmoil and explore other areas of potential improvement, Lyall said she thinks its large scale implications present an appropriate opportunity for presidency turnover.
Marcovich said he plans to put together a group of current and former regents along with faculty and staff to seek out a new president and added he plans to have the position filled by June.
For Lyall, the next academic year will include a sponsored writing project at the Carnegie Foundation in Palo Alto, Calif., which is an establishment sponsoring research and other activities committed to the advancement of teaching.
After that, Lyall said she may return to UW-Madison as an instructor.
""I commend Katharine for positioning the University of Wisconsin System and UW-Madison to be successful for many years to come. She will be very difficult to replace,"" Wiley said in a statement.
