On the final day of its series on the UW-Madison chancellor search, The Daily Cardinal interviews outgoing Chancellor John Wiley on his experiences at UW-Madison and his thoughts on the search for his replacement.
The Daily Cardinal: What do you like best about living in Madison?
John Wiley: When I first came here as a student about 40 years ago, I just liked Madison immediately - I mean as soon as I drove into the city even before I met anyone '¦ I actually like the weather - the four seasons. I enjoy cold weather actually more than summer, more than hot weather. I've never lived any other place that I liked better than Madison. And when I went away after I graduated, I always knew I wanted to come back someday, and I did, about eight years later.
DC: What do you most enjoy doing as chancellor?
JW: Meeting with students and meeting with alumni. I get lots of chances to do both, and with no exceptions - including times when I had big groups of protestors or demonstrators - I always come away from meetings with students feeling proud of our students. And by meeting with the students and the alumni '¦ it reminds me what business we're in. The students with all the promise of the future and the alumni with all the accomplishments that their education here made possible, it's just very gratifying in both cases.
DC: What has been the most difficult part?
JW: Dealing with the state budget has been the most difficult and challenging.
DC: What is challenging about the state budget process?
JW: What's challenging about it is that a combination of state money and tuition is what funds the base budget of the university. I mean we have a lot of other money '¦ But none of those things can be re-allocated to use for hiring faculty or running academic programs. The base operations of the university are funded out of just those two things - tuition and state support. The less we get of state support, the more we have to get from tuition. That's what's caused tuition to go up faster than it should have or would have otherwise '¦ If our budget is flat, that means I've had six years of re-allocating money from one thing to another '¦ Everything we've done that's new has been done by that process of re-allocation and cost cutting and cost savings.
DC: Do you feel confident handing off the momentum you've generated in terms of fundraising to whoever takes over?
JW: Yes, I feel very confident that the institution is in extremely good shape '¦ I absolutely expect that the next chancellor during their first five or six years will raise as much money as the total of all the money we've ever raised in our history. I think we're very well positioned to have another hugely successful fundraising campaign. That happened during my six years. The campaign that we completed in that time raised more money than all of the money ever raised in the history of the university from 1848 to 2001. And I think that will happen again in the next five or six years.
DC: What do you think are characteristics to be a good chancellor?
JW: First, I think, is to be a good listener. One of the temptations of having a high level position, whether it's a dean or a chancellor or a president of something is '¦ you get used to people being very polite to you and telling you, Yes, you're right,"" even if you're not '¦ People tend to tell you what they think you want to hear, instead of what you really need to know. So doing a lot of listening and careful listening, I think, is probably the most important single thing.
DC: What role do you play in finding a replacement?
JW: Not [any] really. The search committee interviewed me, actually twice '¦ to find out what I thought the biggest challenges were and the kinds of things they should be alert for. So they listened to whatever I had to say, but I have no role at all after that. I don't even know who's being a candidate or who's under consideration '¦ I'll be as surprised as everyone else when I read in the paper who the final five are.
DC: Do you have any advice for your replacement?
JW: Not very much. I'm preparing a briefing book with pages on every school and college, every major unit or department on campus just to make sure that nothing falls between the cracks, so there's a smooth transition '¦ But I think that's probably what's best for me to do is turn over the key and go do something else. And if they want advice, they'll come ask. If they don't, I'm sure they'll find their own way.
DC: Do you have more definitive plans after September?
JW: No, not really. I figure I'm going to stick around here. I don't know exactly what I'll do. I may retire. I may stay on the faculty. I know I shouldn't try to go back to engineering '¦ Since I've been doing educational administration for 20 years, I think maybe it's best if I teach in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis or the La Follette Institute.
DC: Any thoughts about campus safety, in light of Brittany Zimmermann's death?
JW: Campus safety is a constant priority, and despite anything that we might wish to the contrary, it's never 100 percent. If there were any one thing that I could wave a magic wand and fix that would improve safety more than anything else, it would be to eliminate high-risk drinking '¦ Almost every bad thing that happens to students - almost, not quite - involves excessive alcohol '¦ But obviously, periodically, we get reminded it's a dangerous world in ways that go beyond our control, and things happen that you're hard-pressed to know how you could have prevented.
DC: Any final message to the students?
JW: I don't think I have advice for the students. I'd be happy to let them know that I am very proud of them '¦ I have a great deal of confidence that this current crop of students - all of you who are here working toward your degrees - are a very important part of the future leadership of this country and other countries around the world.
