New UW-Platteville chancellor faces enrollment challenges, Richland campus uncertainty
The board overseeing University of Wisconsin System campuses has tapped an internal candidate to be the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
The UW Board of Regents unanimously approved hiring Tammy Evetovich in a closed-door meeting Tuesday. She will earn $265,000 annually.
“As a first-generation college graduate having built a career focused on students and around rural communities, this opportunity is especially important to me personally,” Evetovich said in a statement.
Evetovich will face significant challenges in her new job. UW-Platteville has experienced the largest enrollment decline of any four-year campus over the past five years, from 8,100 students in 2018-19 to roughly 6,200 this year. Its two branch campuses in Baraboo and Richland Center have also lost a significant number of students.
UW System President Jay Rothman announced the end of in-person degree programs at the Richland campus after the conclusion of this spring semester. Richland Center community members point much of the blame for enrollment decline back at UW-Platteville, which inherited the Richland campus in 2018. The Richland County board went so far as specifically requiring a third-party mediator be present for any meetings with UW-Platteville leaders.
Evetovich has spent the past three years in Platteville. She arrived in the southwest corner of the state in May 2020 to serve as provost and spent the past year serving as interim chancellor.
The rest of Evetovich's academic career has been in Nebraska. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree and doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She moved up the ranks from professor to department chair to dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences at Wayne State College.
The other finalists in the search were Philip Cavalier, the interim chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, and Artanya Wesley, the vice chancellor for student affairs at the UW–Whitewater.
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tammy Evetovich named next University of Wisconsin-Platteville chancellor
