While some students were laying out on the beach for spring break, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit made the almost 750-mile trip to 29-degree Eau Claire, Wis.
Benoit was named one of five finalists for the position of chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and visited the public four-year institution that enrolls about 11,500 students from March 3 to 5.
Last Monday, Benoit attended an open forum at Schofield Auditorium which allowed faculty, staff, students and residents to interact and ask her questions.
About 80 attendees were present at the forum, said chair of the search and screen committee Rama Yelkur, UW-Eau Claire professor of marketing and coordinator of international business programs.
“The topic given to each of the finalists was ‘given the landscape of public higher education, how would you lead UW-Eau Claire,’ ” Yelkur said. “That is all we gave each candidate and they took it in any direction that they wanted.”
During her forum, Benoit discussed UW-Eau Claire’s strengths and how they should continue to build on them, challenges higher education faces in the coming years and the importance of diversity.
“For diverse students, they need to see a faculty that is diverse,” she said.
In a statement that was released last month, Benoit told The Post that women are “significantly underrepresented” in the ranks of public university presidents, which is one of the reasons why she is exploring the possibility of becoming chancellor.
Last Tuesday, former Student Senate President of UW-Eau Claire Phil Rynish, a fifth-year senior studying biology and geography took Benoit on a tour of UW-Eau Claire’s campus.
“We talked about the different buildings on campus and their history,” Rynish said. “Our campus isn’t quite as big as OU but we have some construction going on and she asked some questions about that.”
Rynish is also on the search and screen committee with Yelkur and attended Benoit’s open forum. Rynish said during the forum, Benoit talked about how she would work with the faculty.
“I would define a leader as someone who is able to motivate and inspire others,” Benoit said. “(Someone who) is interested in the needs of others and can balance the needs of an organization.”
On Feb. 23 Kathryn Cruz-Uribe withdrew as a finalist in the chancellor search; she was later named the new chancellor of the Indiana University East campus.
“We are excited to find out who our next chancellor will be,” Yelkur said.
The new chancellor will be announced in April at the Board of Regents meeting at UW-La Crosse.
If hired, Benoit, whose 2012-2013 OU salary is $265,696, 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.
Levin-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. His salary as interim chancellor is about $220,000, said Dave Giroux, UW System spokesman.
David Heiling, news editor at The Spectator, and Jon Swedien, staff writer at the Leader-Telegram, contributed to this article.
bc822010@ohiou.edu
