Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit was named one of five finalists for the position of chancellor at The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
A 21-membered search and screen committee recommended Benoit and the four other finalists to UW System President Kevin P. Reilly and the UW System Board of Regents.
“One of the concerns that I have with the state of higher education is that women are significantly underrepresented in the ranks of public university presidents,” Benoit said in a statement. “That will not change unless women are willing to put themselves forward for these roles. Given my personal convictions about the role of women in academia, I want to explore the possibility of becoming a university president.”
The chair of the search committee, Rama Yelkur, UW-Eau Claire professor of marketing and coordinator of international business programs, said she interviewed Benoit when she was a semi-finalist but couldn’t comment on individual candidates.
“They all did real well which is why they are finalists,” she said.
Benoit will visit the campus from March 3-5 and has an open forum scheduled on March 4 from 2:30-4:00 p.m. in Schofield Auditorium. Yelkur said no live streams would be available.
If hired, Benoit would succeed former UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich, who stepped down May 2012 to accept a job as president at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
UW-Madison’s Gilles Bousquet has served as UW-Eau Claire’s Interim Chancellor since July but was not named a finalist for the position.
UW-Eau Claire enrolls about 11,500 students.
“I genuinely enjoy my work and colleagues at Ohio University and would not leave unless the right opportunity presented itself,” Benoit said.
