UW Oshkosh students, staff and faculty all echoed that they want a chancellor who is visible to the campus community at the Universities of Wisconsin Search and Screen Committee listening sessions held in Reeve Union Dec. 9.

Larson Lewis, a junior PR student at UWO, said that he wants a chancellor that students can see themselves in.

“I don’t mean this in like a physical appearance sense, but more so in the way that they are viewed by the public,” Lewis said. “I think with the alarmingly high amount of students leaving after their first or second semester, there needs to be someone who understands every student.”

Lewis said there needs to be a chancellor that understands and cherishes the differences in students on campus.

“I think there needs to be someone who has worked in environments of people with low-income backgrounds, people of color or like international students,” Lewis said. “I think it’s very easy to tell what faculty on this campus reflect that, and I think we need to see that in the [new] chancellor.”

Dr. Jerry Thomas, a UWO political science professor, said he agreed with his colleagues from the history department, and students, that the new chancellor should be more visible.

“The chancellor doesn’t simply go to community members asking for a handout,” Thomas said. “The chancellor is a full-fledged community citizen and leader. They must live in Oshkosh and invigorate and invest and be innovative in a city that is ridiculously amazing.”

Thomas said that the new chancellor will have to focus on fundraising in order to help the university out of its budget deficit.

“I want someone who can confront our financial woes, not with cuts and more cuts by increasing revenue,” Thomas said. “Of course, we want a budget advocate in Madison and Washington, but we also want a budget advocate in Oshkosh.”

The Search and Screen Committee will take the information the university community shared at the listening sessions and begin narrowing down candidates to become the 12th chancellor of UWO after current chancellor Andrew Leavitt announced he was resigning earlier this semester. Leavitt will step down from the university this summer, and UWO hopes to have a new chancellor in place by July 1, 2025. 

Potential candidates to become the new chancellor will be selected by the Search and Screen committee and will be forwarded to a special regent committee for further approval before being recommended to the full Board of Regents, who ultimately has the authority to hire the next chancellor.

Universities of Wisconsin regent Ashok Rai is the chair of the Search and Screen Committee, assisted by UWO Associate Radio/TV/Film Professor Andrew Smock, who serves as vice chair. The committee features five other regents, including UWO student and nontraditional student Regent Desmond Adongo, as well as other university and City of Oshkosh representatives.

Rai said that the two listening sessions educated himself and the rest of the committee on what types of characteristics people want in the new chancellor.

“I feel like all of your comments today are going to help shape the questions that every committee member [will ask during interviews],” Rai said. “You’ve [all] really done a ton for the future of the UWO leadership search today. I know it’s finals week, so it’s even more intense that you guys were here and appreciate it.”

To find out more about the process that the university will follow to select the next chancellor, visit www.uwosh.edu.