Q & A with UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward

When Biddy Martin left her job as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, it came at a time when the state’s flagship university could ill afford to lack leadership.

So, the UW called on David Ward, who had led the campus in the 1990’s, to come back and take the reins on an interim basis for a year.In September, that temporary assignment was extended by another year.

That’s because of the challenges facing the Univeristy in the near future, namely cuts in state government aid, which were compounded by a second round of cuts, called a “lapse”, of which the U-W system is expected to bear 38 percent of the brunt, even though it only accounts for seven percent of state spending.