The Daily Cardinal: What was the motivation behind applying for this position as chancellor for The University of Wisconsin-Madison?
Michael Schill: It’s just an incredible honor to be considered for this position as chancellor. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an incredible school with an amazing tradition of service and commitment to research and teaching. All of those things together make it a very exciting place for me. It’s an opportunity I find very exciting.
One of the things that I find very wonderful about the school is its commitment to access.
I was the dean for five and a half years at UCLA. One of the things that is incredibly important is that our universities be open to students from all walks of life and of all economic backgrounds.
My sister and I are the first to go to college in our families, and it means a lot to me that Wisconsin has a commitment to access, to provide students with the ability to go to school and not have to take out enormous amounts of debt.
I think that is something that is a very important element of higher education and one that is a commitment that is increasingly becoming difficult to adhere to, and I love that about Wisconsin.
I also am extremely excited about the Wisconsin Idea. Prior to becoming dean at UCLA, I was the head of a research center in New York (Firman Cener for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University) that worked on issues of low-income housing and urban affairs, and we worked with the government all the time. I think that it’s incredibly important for our institutions of higher learning, particularly public institutions, to collaborate and work to make sure that our research is benefitting the community around us. That is part of the DNA of the University of Wisconsin, and that’s what I really love about it.
DC: What characteristics and past experiences would you bring to the chancellor position at UW-Madison?
Schill: Deans of law schools are very similar to chancellors. We hire faculty and staff, we create programs and initiatives, we manage budgets, we supervise curricula, we engage with external constituencies like government officials and alumni, and most importantly, we fundraise. Those are all things that a chancellor does and those are all things I have done now at two different institutions.
I’ve been at a public institution and I’ve been at one of the greatest private institution of this country. I’ve done each of those things, in each of those settings.
DC: What is your impression of UW-Madison?
Schill: They interviewed us in Chicago, so what did was I snuck up to Madison two weekends ago, and I hung out at one of the student unions and actually went on an admissions tour. I spoke with a lot of people, a lot of students, got a pretty good impression of students, and I’ve found them to be incredibly smart and incredibly engaged. I basically came across with the impression that the students are just incredibly smart and incredibly engaged in the school that they love learning, and that they’re happy with their professors, happy with the education they’re getting, happy with the experiences that Wisconsin is giving them.
I found that also from the alumni I know, I’ve not found not one who didn’t love the place and wasn’t grateful for the education that they gave them.
Overall my impression is that the university is an extraordinary place and that the students, faculty and alumni are incredible and that it would be an incredible honor to lead that school.
DC: How do you plan on connecting with students at such a large university?
Schill: Start with this reception we’re going to do in two weeks. That begins the connecting with students. I believe that what a leader at an academic institution needs to do is show up. So you need to be at events that are meaningful for students, whether those are athletic events, whether those are dramatic events, musical events, teaching.
Number one you show up, you go to things, you're available to the students, you’re not a distant figure.
Two is, you teach the students, so you get to know them on an intellectual level, and you get to know how they think. You do the most important activity you can do at a university, which is to teach.
Three, you’re available to the students. Whenever a student wants to see me, I immediately bring them into my office, I immediately schedule an appointment and I have regularly scheduled office hours.
There’s not one particular strategy. What you do is you try to do everything to be able to connect with students and to be able to hear what students think. There’s no way to know the university is doing the job that it’s supposed to unless you talk with the people who are consuming education.
And again, as I said a moment ago, teaching is the most important function you do in a university.
DC: Do you have a long-term plan or vision if chosen to be the next chancellor?
Schill: Any candidate for chancellor who sets out a long-term vision and plan for the university when they haven’t been there, and they haven’t talked to people and haven’t learned about the institution.
You don’t come into an institution with a plan. What you do is you go to the institution, you learn about the institution, you talk with the people there, talk with students, talk with staff members, talk with faculty members and meet with alumni. From there, you put together a strategic plan that embodies the inspiration of the schools as well as your own aspirations for that school. It’s a process that you do, so in other words, you don’t sit at the computer one night and say, ah, here’s the vision for the University of Wisconsin. That is a sure strategy for failure. What you do is you go in and work collegially with faculty, students, staff and alumni to develop a plan for the institution. That is really important at a school like Wisconsin. Wisconsin has an incredibly robust system of shared governance. And it would be totally unacceptable to that culture to have one walk in with a plan and say, OK let’s hop to it and implement it.
What you would do is before you have a plan, you would meet with all the appropriate people and hear their ideas.
One thing I’ve learned in academic administration on for ten years, all the good ideas in the world don’t reside with the leader. The leader gets good ideas by speaking with people, learning from people who are on the ground.
DC: Do you foresee any challenges coming into a chancellor position?
Schill: Every university in this country has challenges, and Wisconsin is not alone among the universities not having challenges.
Virtually every public university in this country has funding challenges. States cut funding to universities and that is the case with Wisconsin as well as virtually other state universities. One big challenge for Wisconsin is to go find additional sources of revenue in order to recruit and retain great faculty, in order to be able to provide appropriate financial assistant for students. What needs to be done is a combination of things. There’s not one silver bullet.
One thing that needs to be done is to better articulate and gain support among the people of Wisconsin for their great university. The University of Wisconsin is an economic engine for the state, and we need to show the people of the state the legislators how important Wisconsin is. That’s number one, is to create political support for the university among people in the state as well as legislators, and that’s something I look forward to doing.
At the same time the university needs to be accountable. It receives public resources, and it needs to show that it is stewarding those resources effectively. That’s one element of the resource question.
The second element of the resource question is fundraising. We need to go to alumni. The University of Wisconsin has hundreds of thousands of alumni. And that is an incredible army of supporters who could provide assistance to the university. Every Wisconsin graduate I know is a happy badger. We need to tap into that goodwill and convert that goodwill into dollars and support for the university.
In my two previously deanships, I along with my staff and the entire law school, we tripled fundraising at UCLA. We’re close to tripling fundraising at the University of Chicago. One of the things I anticipate, I will be spending a lot of my time doing is going to alumni, meeting with alumni, engaging alumni and hopefully getting alumni to give back to the university. And it’s through multiple areas of support, including the state resources as well as through private philanthropy.
A third source of resource, which is gong to be a challenge going forward, is if the federal government cuts back its budget. That will be a challenge for the University of Wisconsin. Because the University of Wisconsin is one of the leading universities in the country in receiving federal researching money. What the chancellor needs to do is support the faculty in getting more than Wisconsin’s fair share of federal dollars, and that’s something I look forward to doing.
All of that’s part of the resource challenge.
The culture of Wisconsin is a fabulous culture. That is not an area that’s a challenge. That’s an opportunity.
A further challenge is to really continue and expand the Wisconsin Idea. The idea forming the community. The better we do at making the Wisconsin Idea a reality, the more likely the people of the state are also going to support the university. These create virtuous cycles and they reinforce each other.
DC: Personally, why do you want to be chancellor at The University of Wisconsin-Madison?
Schill: Who wouldn’t want it? Who wouldn’t want this position?
It is a great school. I care deeply about higher education. You have to understand, my dad worked in a factory, my mom was a nurse. Neither went to college. The fact that I was able to go to college and pay almost nothing for my education. I went to private school but I got a huge amount of financial aid. It ended up being cheaper than going to a state school. All the opportunities that I’ve had in my life come from the education that I got that other people paid for. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to give back and to create those opportunities for other people? Who wouldn’t want the opportunity in leading a university which produces knowledge and which has had such a wonderful history of producing knowledge?
For me, it’s a privilege. It’s humbling that I would be considered. So the question isn’t why would you want this, it’s who wouldn’t want to?
