During Ohio University’s spring break, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit will make the almost-750-mile trip to Eau Claire, Wis., to interview for a new job.
On Friday, Benoit was named one of five finalists for the position of chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
“We are incredibly proud of Provost Benoit,” OU President Roderick McDavis said in a statement. “She certainly possesses all of the skills and competencies necessary to succeed as chancellor. … We wish her much success in this search process.”
If Benoit were to get the position, she would be the equivalent of a university president, said Ann Fidler, chief of staff for the provost and chief financial officer.
“There are 13 four-year universities in Wisconsin and 13 two-year colleges, and the person who oversees all of the four-year universities and the two-year colleges is the president of the entire UW system, and all of the university chancellors report to him,” Fidler said in an email.
Of the applicants, three of the five are women; Benoit said women are “significantly underrepresented” in the ranks of public university presidents.
“Given my personal convictions about the role of women in academia, I want to explore the possibility of becoming a university president,” Benoit said in a statement.
Benoit will visit UW-Eau Claire, a public four-year institution that enrolls about 11,500 students, from March 3 to 5 to explore the campus and attend an open forum March 4 allowing faculty, staff, students and residents to interact with the finalists.
UW System President Kevin P. Reilly and a committee of five regents will interview the finalists March 20 and then recommend one candidate to the full Board of Regents for final approval and appointment.
The 21-member search and screen committee is chaired by Rama Yelkur, UW-Eau Claire professor of marketing and coordinator of international business programs, who said the new hire will begin the job as chancellor in the summer.
“All the candidates are extremely strong and well qualified,” she said. “Everyone will bring their own experiences and their own perspectives.”
The new chancellor will be announced in April at the Board of Regents meeting at UW-La Crosse. 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.
Stankevich’s 2011-2012 compensation package at UW-Eau Claire included a $197,949 salary, $22,608 housing allowance and $46,800 in employer-paid benefits, according to the university’s human resources department.
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. Bousquet’s salary as interim is about $220,000, said Dave Giroux, UW System spokesman.
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