Office of the President
University of Wisconsin System
February, 2004
Jay
L. Smith, Former President
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents
Regent, 1995-2003
"President Lyall has kept a steady hand on the tiller while navigating Wisconsin's system of higher education through arduous times. She has successfully managed one of the nation's finest higher education systems during a period of fiscal and demographic crisis. A time when state revenue shortfalls resulted in cuts for public education while demand for higher education soared. With courage and determination, she worked to overcome the numerous challenges confronting higher education while never losing sight of the needs of the individual student. As president of what could be considered one of Wisconsin's largest businesses, she led with a collaborative style. Her ability to work successfully with a wide range of constituents and issues endeared her as a leader.
President Lyall recognized that the economic vitality of the state is critical to its public system of higher education and thus the quality of life of its citizens. She focused the University system in collaboration with government and business to foster economic development in Wisconsin. She co-chaired four successful statewide economic summits which developed numerous initiatives to improve the state's economy. During her tenure, President Lyall moved the University of Wisconsin System, which is the pride of Wisconsin, to a new level of excellence."
Donna Shalala, President
University of Miami
Chancellor, UW-Madison, 1988-94
Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
"Katharine Lyall is one of higher education's most gifted leaders. Wisconsin has been lucky to reap the rewards of that leadership. She has significantly increased the quality of the system's institutions.
"Her integrity, high intelligence and good humor will be hard to replace. I am honored to have worked with her and count her as a friend."
Stephen
R. Portch, Chancellor Emeritus
University of Georgia
Former Senior Vice President, UW System; Former Chancellor, UW Colleges
"Katharine Lyall has served the University of Wisconsin System, in several capacities, over two decades. She has been a loyal and dedicated leader who has set the highest of intellectual and ethical standards. Not only has she been a fine administrator, she has also continued to be a gifted teacher and thoughtful scholar. Katharine loves cartoons and sailing. From the former, she learned never to take herself too seriously; from the latter, she learned how to steer a steady course through stormy seas."
Stanley O. Ikenberry
University of Illinois
Former President, American Council on Education
"The most remarkable thing about Katharine Lyall is her great skill as a leader of one of the largest and most complex university systems in the nation, paired with a genuine warmth and deep integrity that mark her as a person. Without question, she is one of the most admired and respected higher education leaders in the country.
"She has confronted many challenges over her long tenure, but her legacy will be a University of Wisconsin System that is stronger and closer to the people of Wisconsin than ever before. She has chosen to exit the stage at the pinnacle of a truly outstanding performance."
Lee S. Shulman, President
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Stanford, CA
"Katharine Lyall has served both the state of Wisconsin and the nation in her distinguished term as President of the University of Wisconsin System. She has been a national leader in emphasizing the central role of teaching excellence in America's great public universities. Committed to the importance of teaching and to the recognition and rewards that must be directed toward great teachers, she pioneered in establishing the University of Wisconsin Teaching Academies. This effort not only raised the profile and impact of teaching on the UW campuses, but sent a signal to all the state universities in the country that teaching must become a top priority. She emphasized that teaching and research are not in competition for the resources and commitments of great universities. They must either support one another or they will both suffer.
"As Chair of the Board of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Katharine Lyall encouraged and supported the Foundation's initiatives in the worlds of elementary and secondary education as well. She was a champion on the programs to provide active roles for precollegiate teachers in the Foundation's "scholarship to teaching" programs. Under her leadership, the foundation's attention to the improvement of teaching at all levels, from the primary grades through the doctorate, became more focused.
"Katharine Lyall will be a very tough act to follow in the President's job, and her shoes will be quite difficult to fill. But Lyall has laid a superb educational foundation for her successors, and they will profit from the vision and genius of her leadership."
David
Ward, President
American Council on Education
Former Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Katharine Lyall is one of the nation's preeminent leaders in higher education. She has served as a mentor and role model for many of today's higher education chief executives.
"A successful university system is, in many respects, an expression in institutional federalism. Katharine Lyall recognized and expanded this idea with tact, style and purpose. As a Chancellor, I valued and admired her understanding of the relationships of the system and its constituent institutions."
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