U of M official is a finalist for top job at Wisconsin

UW Science Hall
Science Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Photo courtesy of the University of Wisconsin

(AP) - A top official at the University of Minnesota is one of four finalists for the job of chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the University of Minnesota, spent 20 years of his career at Wisconsin, and is still well-known on that campus.

He was associate vice chancellor for research policy from 2002 to 2005, before he left for the Minnesota job.

Mulcahy joined the human oncology faculty in 1985 and served as associate dean for biological sciences from 1996 to 2002.

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UW System President Kevin Reilly announced the four finalists for the job today. They are vying to replace Chancellor John Wiley, who is stepping down in September after seven years.

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

The other two candidates are Dr. Biddy Martin, provost of Cornell University in New York, and Dr. Rebecca Blank, the former dean at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

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

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.

A 23-member search and screen committee and a Board of Regents special committee recommended the candidates to 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 are expected to confirm the person in June.

The next chancellor will lead Wisconsin'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 search committee interviewed 10 people in the past few weeks from a pool of 55 applicants, faculty secretary David Musolf said.

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

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)