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Carolyn "Biddy" Martin
Chancellor, UW–Madison
Term	September 2008 –
Predecessor	John D. Wiley
Born
Alma mater	Ph.D., UW–Madison M.A., Middlebury College B.A., William & Mary
Profession	Higher Education

Carolyn Arthur “Biddy” Martin is the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, her doctoral alma mater. She assumed office on September 1, 2008, succeeding John D. Wiley. Prior to becoming chancellor, she was Provost of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from July 1, 2000 until August 31, 2008. She is the ninth graduate of UW–Madison to serve as its chancellor, and the first alumna to hold that position. She is the university's second female chancellor, the first having been Donna Shalala, and also the university's first openly gay chancellor.

At Cornell, the provost is the university president's first deputy officer and reports to the president as the chief educational officer and chief operating officer of the university. The provost is responsible for overseeing all academic programs within the university, with the exception of those programs reporting to the provost for medical affairs in New York City. As provost, Martin's accomplishments included the creation of a $4 billion capital campaign, the reorganization of the Division of Biological Sciences, the enhancement of faculty salaries, and the establishment of the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, an interdisciplinary research institute on Cornell's Ithaca campus. She also developed a new financial aid policy that would eliminate loans for all students whose families earn less than $75,000 a year, as well as a community Common Read project as part of orientation for incoming freshmen.

Martin received her Ph.D. in German Literature in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and joined the faculty at Cornell the same year. In 1991, she was promoted to associate professor in the Department of German Studies with a joint appointment in the Women’s Studies Program. She served as chair of the Department of German Studies from 1994-97, and in 1997 was promoted to full Professor. In 1996, she was appointed Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

A distinguished scholar of German Studies, Martin is the author of numerous articles and two books—one on a literary and cultural figure in the Freud circle, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and the other on gender theory. A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, she received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a masters degree from Middlebury College.

[edit] Major initiatives

[edit] Madison Initiative for Undergraduates

Martin's first major policy initiative as Chancellor has been the implementation of an incremental four-year tuition increase plan called the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. This plan is intended to pay for more undergraduate course offerings, additional faculty and staff to teach those courses, enhanced student services, and supplemental (and eventually complete) financial assistance for students whose families make under $80,000 a year. The plan was approved by the Board of Regents on May 8, 2009.

[edit] Go Big Read!

Martin has also created the university's first Common Read program, known as Go Big Read!, which began in Fall 2009. The inaugural selected title was In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan.

[edit] Graduate reform

Martin and Provost Paul DeLuca are currently pushing for an ambitious reorganization of the university's graduate and research initiatives. Their proposal calls for separation of the roles of Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, which are currently held by the same person. The newly independent Vice Chancellor for Research would be responsible for areas such as compliance, safety and protection of human subjects while the Dean of the Graduate School would continue to oversee graduate education. This proposal comes in the wake of several compliance violations that placed the university at risk for losing critical research funding and accreditation. Much of the resistance to this proposal comes from faculty who believe that these violations were confined to only a few units and that the proposed restructuring would be too costly and not necessary to prevent future violations.

[edit] Controversy

In February 2009, Martin voted in favor of the creation of a controversial second-trimester abortion clinic at the UW Hospital and Clinics. The UW Hospital and Clinics Authority Board, of which Martin is a member, supported the proposal in an 11-3 vote. Her decision angered many anti-abortion alumni, students, and stakeholders. Wisconsin Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, who testified at the meeting, went so far as to say the board and Martin’s vote put UW’s “good name on murder.” “Biddy Martin … will be forever remembered as the woman who caused the university to do something that no other clinic in central Wisconsin would do … and that is kill a baby five months [after] conception,” Grothman told The Badger Herald, one of the campus newspapers. (The Badger Herald, February 5, 2009.) Martin told The Badger Herald that she stands by her decision to support the proposed second-trimester abortion clinic at Madison Surgery Center. “I thought it was the right decision yesterday and I think so today,” Martin said. “My strongest overriding feeling is that it’s a very complicated, difficult issue, and the way it played out was the right way.”

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

• Woman and Modernity: The (Life)Styles of Lou Andreas-Salomé, Cornell University Press, 1991.
• Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being Lesbian, Routledge Press, 1996.

[edit] External links

• University of Wisconsin–Madison Chancellor's Office
• UWisconsin press release
• [1]Badger Herald Article 2/5/09
• Carolyn Martin vitae