Ward's Next Vision: D.C.

It turns out that former Chancellor David Ward MS'62, PhD'63 will be stepping out, rather than stepping up. Ward, who often joked that his plan after retiring as chancellor was to "step up" to the UW-Madison faculty, recently accepted a new job as president of the American Council on Education, a Washington, D.C.- based organization that represents 1,800 colleges and universities and advocates for higher-education issues in the nation's capital. Currently on sabbatical at the University of California-Berkeley, Ward will assume the new post on September 1.

Ward beat more than one hundred candidates to earn the job, which will make him one of the nation's highest-profile representatives of higher education. It also means that, at least for now, Ward will not take on the directorship of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, a new campus research center that he had planned to lead after returning from sabbatical.

The center, known as Wiscape, commenced in January with the goal of hosting research and outreach programs related to issues in higher education. Charles Read, dean of the School of Education, and Henry Lufler MA'67, PhD'82, associate dean of education and former executive assistant to the chancellor, are directing the center.

Read says that Ward's new position will benefit the center as it gets off the ground. "Chancellor Ward maintains a lively interest in Wiscape, and he will be consulting with us on directions for the new center, both in person and from Washington," says Read. "In fact, his new position at ACE, with its comprehensive national view of issues in higher education, will give him a uniquely valuable perspective."

back