Finalist named for UW System president
Entering the next phase of a presidential search process marred by criticism and hindered by a global pandemic, the committee tasked with hiring a replacement for retiring-University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross named a single finalist Tuesday.
University of Alaska System President Jim Johnsen will participate in multiple interviews with campus stakeholders and committees next week.
Johnsen was the “first choice of finalist,” UW Regent Vice President Michael Grebe said in a statement. Grebe chairs the nine-person presidential search committee, which met mostly in closed session over the past few months to digest stakeholder recommendations and narrow down options.
“The candidate pool that was developed and reviewed by the committee was very deep and strong, and included a number of impressive and qualified candidates at each step of the process,” Grebe said.
In the end, the group unanimously chose to only put Johnsen up for feedback from beyond its own membership.
All interviews with Johnsen have been and will be held remotely, system spokesman Mark Pitsch confirmed. Campuses remain mostly shuttered as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, with staff working remotely in most instances.
In a statement, the UW System acknowledged the pandemic posed “unanticipated and unprecedented circumstances and obstacles.” Several of the many “impressive and qualified candidates” dropped out of the search as it neared a close, with some “expressing concern over being named publicly as a finalist during the pandemic.”
The UW System search committee, which has been criticized by faculty, staff and some state lawmakers for a lack of diversity and representation, chose to press on with its search for a new leader despite other university systems putting theirs on hold when the coronavirus hit.
The president of the California State University system delayed his retirement, originally planned for July 4. The University of Texas system suspended its search for a new leader and appointed an interim president, so it could deal with the “demands of responding to the coronavirus pandemic and to allow the system to focus on its plans for the summer and fall,” the Dallas Morning News reported.
The committee’s decision to name only one finalist drew ire from proponents of government transparency, despite the System saying it did not violate a provision of state law that generally requires the public release of at least five names for finalists for positions of public office.
Pitsch told the Journal Sentinel that Johnsen was the only name offered up for final consideration by the search committee and a modification to the statute in 2015 exempted the UW System from the five-finalist requirement.
Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said the withholding of other applicants may be legal, but the “extraordinary secrecy” around such a consequential decision was not in the public’s interest.
“What other applicants were there who may have been better candidates than the one they’ve decided to pick?” Lueders said. “It’s really outrageous. Even if they’re right in the law, they’re wrong. They’re wrong to withhold this
information from the public. I mean, who do they think they are? Who do they think they work for?”
Asked if the committee considered reopening the search after only one finalist emerged, Pitsch said, “The search is moving forward.”
It’s unclear why the search will not be reopened. Hiring Johnsen gives the board, half of whom were appointed by GOP Gov. Scott Walker, the chance to choose the next System president before it flips to having a majority of appointees from Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.
If selected, Johnsen faces the major challenges of leading one of the largest public university systems in the country — from guiding the recovery from ongoing and new financial woes, to increasing access to students of color and adult learners, to guiding aspects of a complicated reopening process — should campuses make that choice come fall.
He’ll also potentially carry through with implementing a controversial and fast-paced plan from his predecessor to cut academic programs and redefine the missions of most UW campuses in the state.
One of Johnsen’s most important tasks will be advocating for the system with state and federal legislators at a time when universities are bracing for potential state funding cuts due to the economic strain of the pandemic. And campuses are still limited by an ongoing freeze on in-state tuition and historic declines in state funding.
Already, UW System has found itself bearing the brunt of the state spending lapse implemented in the fiscal year that just ended. The UW System returned $40.7 million — more than half the total across state agencies. UW System received $47 million in stimulus funding from the federal CARES Act.
State budget cuts are something Johnsen is certainly familiar with.
Johnsen was at the helm of the threecampus Alaska system last year when the state made national headlines as Alaska’s Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy moved to slash the system’s funding by 41% in a single year, pushing the system’s board to declare financial exigency.
Fears rose of closing programs and even entire campuses, until Johnsen and campus leaders negotiated the cut down by about half, and spread it out over three years. Programs would still be reduced and discontinued, Johnsen told the Anchorage Daily News in March, but the system would have greater control of the situation.
“It wasn’t the best deal ever. But it was a lifesaver,” Johnsen told the Daily News.
His tenure in Alaska was not without its issues.
In October 2019, following the negotiation of the deal with the governor, the faculty senate at the University of Alaska Anchorage sent a letter to the system’s board expressing “deep concerns” with Johnsen’s leadership.
Johnsen holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz, a master’s from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
He became the president of the University of Alaska in 2015 and has worked in higher education for decades, including at the University of Minnesota from 1992 to 1996.
After interviews with campus leaders, shared governance groups and chancellors, the committee will meet again and decide on if it will make a final recommendation to the full board of regents to approve Johnsen’s appointment.
“The committee unanimously agreed on a first choice of finalist in Dr. Jim Johnsen as a strong, qualified, collaborative leader who would be an excellent choice as the next president of the UW System,” Grebe said.