A week after her recommendation for the position, Carolyn “Biddy” Martin has been formally approved as next chancellor of UW-Madison. The UW System Board of Regents approved Martin during its meeting in Milwaukee Thursday. The 57 year-old Martin, currently provost of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., was recommended for the Madison post by UW System President Kevin Reilly and a Board of Regents search committee.
With a salary of $437,000, Martin will make $100,000 more then did her predecessor, John Wiley , but some $63,000 less than what she made at Cornell. Martin will also be making more money than Reilly, for whom the Regents approved a salary increase of $70,000, bringing his total compensation to $414,593. Reilly says he'll donate much of his pay hike to need-based financial aid for UW System students.
Nearly a quarter of Martin's salary will be paid for by the UW Foundation and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Those groups have jointly underwritten an endowment to help pay the salary of future UW-Madison chancellors, and approximately $100,000 will be distributed directly from the endowment to the university.
In a statement , Martin says she is honored by the confirmation as the next CEO of the Madison campus: “I am aware of UW-Madison's responsibility to the citizens of the state of Wisconsin, and I am enthusiastic about doing our share – and more – to improve the quality of life for people throughout the state and beyond.”