Advertisement
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Provost Elizabeth Hitch has faced a number of challenges while serving as interim chancellor for about 200 days since the departure of Doug Hastad.
The manner in which she has tackled those challenges — straightforward and forthright — deserves both praise and thanks.
It certainly hasn’t been easy.
Hitch, who came to UW-L as provost in 2002, was approved as interim chancellor in March 2006 and took over for Hastad in June.
In between, she was censured by the Faculty Senate because of a disagreement about the search for a new dean of the College of Science and Health.
When 16 of the 21 Senate members who voted favored censure, it was clear the honeymoon was over before the wedding.
Then, the real fun began: Debate over UW-L’s growth-and-access plan, which is designed to use increased tuition and increased enrollment to help fund more students, faculty and aid for lower-income students and students of color.
Hitch sent a team of colleagues to explain the complex program to various members of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents — a key step in promoting the plan.
Once regents approved, criticism began rolling in from across the state — racist
e-mails, critical editorials, angry talk-show hosts, politicians and even a couple of other chancellors. The UW-L plan became a topic in the race for governor, when former
UW-L student and Republican candidate Mark Green criticized it as unfair to Wisconsin taxpayers.
Hitch took the time to personally write to or visit critics, providing facts about the university’s quality of education, student retention and graduation rate (highest among Wisconsin’s comprehensive campuses) while pointing out the huge cuts in state funding and the campus’s woefully low rate of minority students.
Regardless of what you
think of the plan or of Hitch, know this: It would have
been very easy for the interim chancellor to backpedal from the proposal and point out she was merely keeping the chancellor’s chair warm until a permanent replacement could be found.
To her credit, she didn’t shy away from the plan or its critics.
She also played a strong leadership role in the wake of student Luke Homan’s death in the Mississippi River after a night of drinking.
As Hitch told the campus earlier this month: “While Luke’s death was a terrible tragedy, it provided the circumstances where those things that make UW-L a very special university community were demonstrated. This event really highlighted for me the professionalism and caring of the staff from across campus.”
That spirit resulted in Operation: River Watch, in which students from UW-L, Viterbo University and Western Technical College have collaborated with La Crosse police to patrol Riverside Park on weekends.
Hitch also worked to revive a tri-campus/community group to continue tackling the problem of drinking on campus and in our community. She sought and listened to tavern owners to better understand their perspective.
Even though she did not seek the chancellorship, Hitch has been a strong proponent of the institution and its people.
In her campus address last week, Hitch said her interim chancellorship has been “challenging, rewarding, frustrating, tiring, energizing … and more.”
“One of the things I have learned during this interim period is that the chancellor is often the face of the university,” she said, “but cannot be
effective in the role without a lot of support.”
As Joe Gow takes over as chancellor Feb. 1, that need for support is an important lesson for the campus and the community to remember.
