Chancellor Leaving Troubled Wisconsin for the Presidency of Amherst College

[Derechos]

Carolyn A. Martin, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a flagship public research university with 42,000 students, is resigning to become president of Amherst College, a prestigious liberal arts college with 1,750 students.

For most of this year, Dr. Martin, 60, and her campus have occupied center stage in the nation’s politically charged battles over higher education.

In February, Wisconsin was roiled by the fight over the collective bargaining rights of public employees, including those at the university. In March, a state Republican Party official sought the release of the e-mails of a tenured professor in Madison who had criticized both Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, and the party’s position on collective bargaining. And Dr. Martin and Governor Walker spent months on an unsuccessful effort to split the Madison campus from the rest of the state’s higher-education system, giving it greater flexibility in an era of reduced state financing.

“Does everything that’s occurred over the last year play a role?” Dr. Martin, who is known as Biddy, asked in an interview. “It would be foolhardy to say it played no role, but neither I nor anyone else could say exactly what role it played. It’s been incredibly interesting. I really love it here, I got my Ph.D. here, and I feel like I’m leaving this university in a position where it will continue to make great progress.”

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“The situation in public higher education is extremely grim, bordering on absolutely disastrous, and in Wisconsin, it’s been especially, let’s say, dramatic,” Mr. Randel said. “Biddy took it on in a very bold way, more than anyone else I can think of in her position. While she has real stamina and is not a quitter, that has to have been difficult.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/education/15amherst.html?ref=us