By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON – Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
That seemed to be the sentiment expressed by the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee Tuesday following word that University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly will step down. Reilly, the second longest-serving leader in the university system’s history, announced he will lead to advise the American Council on Education in January 2014 and return to teaching.
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Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, the lawmakers who lead the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee, called Reilly’s impending departure an “exciting opportunity” for the UW System, giving the system a “chance to start a new chapter.”
“New leadership will go a long way to re-establishing trust that has eroded over the years,” the co-chairs said in a statement.
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“We are looking forward to working with a new president so together we can create a system that can continue to deliver a world-class education and our graduates are prepared for the workforce,” the lawmakers added.
The 63-year-old Reilly was appointed president in September 2004. He boasts a wide range of accomplishments over his tenure, not the least of which was significant growth of the system’s two doctoral universities, 11 four-year universities, 13 freshman-sophomore UW colleges, and the UW-Extension. Enrollment peaked at more than 182,000 in 2010-11, up from 166,181 in 2003. The latest enrollment of 180,969 represents an 8.9 percent increase from 2003.
But of late, Reilly has taken a lot of heat, particularly over the system’s reserve balances, healthy by Reilly’s accounting, hefty from the viewpoint of his critics. Reilly collected a lot of critics this spring after the release of a report that showed the system had reserve accounts of more than $1 billion, including $648 million in unrestricted cash and more than $400 million in tuition balance.
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