| Photo by Jane Scherr |
David Ward Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
| Photo by Jane Scherr |
Page 3 of 5
So you went on then, in Wisconsin, not only to get your degree, but to become a member of the department, chairman of the department, provost, and then, finally, in the nineties, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. How did you come to be an administrator. Did it just happen naturally?
No, I think it was a pure accident. I think that when I went through the ranks in geography -- I was teaching regularly, I had well over twenty graduate students who were following through, in cities in different eras, my own interest in urban history; I had become President of the Association of American Geographers; I got all the conventional awards, the Guggenheim and ACLS. I was a geographer, there was no question about it. But I had always had a strong interest in governance of the university. I had always had this sense of academic citizenship. And therefore, even though I was committed to research and teaching, I had a reasonably good service record -- I was a faculty senator, on committees that looked at programs, and above all, on a committee that allocated internal research funding, which I think gave me a certain visibility and a reputation for being both tough and fair. But it was as a result of that that I became an associate dean in the Graduate School, which is a part-time job. It had very little effect on my research or teaching. And that gave me a little visibility on campus.
I concluded that my administrative role was going nowhere, went back to the department full-time, and was approached by the University College, London, to be a visiting professor. They were even, I think, flirting with the idea that I might return to London. By now, I was an American citizen; I'm a bicentennial citizen. I'm hyper-American in style. But the my British colleagues were still interested that maybe I should return. So I was at the University of London, teaching British students. I've got an interesting anecdote. Halfway through the course, a young lady came up to me and wanted to know where I was from. I said, "You don't know?" And she said, "No." And I said, "Why don't you guess?" "Nova Scotia, New Zealand" -- all sorts of things. And finally two weeks later, she came up to me and she said, "Were you once one of us?" That was the moment when she realized I might have been. So I was sufficiently exotic for them not to recognize it when I was teaching.
So, anyway, I got this phone call from a friend while still flirting with the University College, London, indicating that there were senior administrative vacancies and a brand new chancellor, Donna Shalala. My friends wanted me to apply for these positions, and I was a little shocked because this was not ... I was back in geography. I had just finished the book that you referred to, published in 1989; I was in the middle of a sequel to that book, actually. So Judith and I -- my wife, Judith, is American, born in Chicago; we had children -- we decided, "We're Americans. It's nice visiting here for a year; we're going to come back." So we went back to Madison.
There were three vacancies: Dean of Letters and Science, Dean of the Graduate School, and Provost and Vice Chancellor. My friends wanted me to apply for all these positions. So I did apply for all of them, or people may have nominated me. And there was the usual search, outside candidates, and all of this. I was short-listed for all three, which was a surprise to me because my only experience was as an associate dean in the Graduate School, and there were many deans who were candidates. So I went to see Donna, and she said, "Well, which of these jobs would you like?" I said, "Dean of Letters and Science." "That's not my plan." So I said, "Well, you know, that's the one that I'm most qualified for." She said, "I think you'd be an ideal Vice Chancellor." So I said to her, "Well, I'm either going to fail and go back to the faculty, or I'm going to succeed and be a chancellor. I'm not sure I'm made of the political stuff to be a chancellor." She said, "You don't fool me for one minute!"
So I went away and talked to my wife, and said, "This lady wants me to me her deputy." Judith had been pretty active in state politics, she's worked for the state and also for the system administration, and she said, "She must know something about you that we don't know, but, you know, maybe you should risk it." So I did.
We [Donna Shalala and I] became known as "the odd couple," affectionately, because we were so different. We were a great team. And in some ways, she was a mentor, although I think she would agree that she learned much from me, as I did with her, too. So in some sense, with her confidence in me, her desire to have an insider from the scholarly side of the faculty to help her with her reform agenda, I was, in a sense, an unlikely candidate, and in fact, it was a surprise appointment.
You served under her for about four years, and then when she became President Clinton's Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, you were named chancellor.
Yes, after a search again. The Board of Regents, as they would here, would go through a search. And there was a short list of three, and then they chose me.
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