BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times | Posted: Thursday, July 10, 2008 12:00 am
Lane Earns learned last week that he could expect a career change.
Earns was vacationing out of the country, but when he returned he was told he was being considered to lead the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh provost has been picked as Parkside's interim chancellor.
UW System President Kevin Reilly announced Wednesday that he will recommend Earns to be Parkside's interim chancellor.
System officials started searching for an interim leader after Parkside's previous choice for chancellor, Robert Felner, resigned last month after telling officials he was under
investigation.
Earns spent the day Wednesday on the Somers campus meeting with Parkside
officials.
"I'm excited, but I think we need to get beyond these recent distractions. We need to refocus and get back to what the educational mission of Parkside is," Earns said.
Retired Chancellor Jack Keating has agreed to extend his tenure by nearly a month to allow for this transition. Keating's last day was supposed to be Aug. 1.
Earns said right now his main job is to listen to Parkside leaders to learn what their needs are as he prepares for the likelihood that he'll take the reins at the school.
If approved by the UW System Board of Regents on Aug. 22, Earns will start on Aug. 24, succeeding Keating, who served as Parkside's leader for more than a decade.
"My job really is to make sure we're not just treading water, but we're moving forward," Earns said.
Earns has worked at UW-Oshkosh for 21 years, including 13 years in leadership positions. He served as chair of the history department and as associate provost.
He was later named interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs in 2004, assuming the permanent role in 2005.
Earns doesn't know if he'll be offered the Parkside chancellor job permanently. He's not thinking about that right now, he said.
Earns would lead the school after Felner, Parkside's original pick to replace Keating, resigned late last month before he'd even started at Parkside.
Days before his scheduled start as Parkside chancellor, Felner informed UW System leaders that he was the subject of an investigation at the University of Louisville - where he was dean of the college of education and human development.
In April, Felner was recommended as one of four finalists for the Parkside job, following a national search. On June 5, the UW System Board of Regents approved Felner's appointment.
Later that month, Felner's attorney told the Louisville Courier-Journal his client was the focus of an investigation into whether $500,000 in federal grant money was mishandled.
Felner resigned shortly after that admission.
"The recent, unsuccessful search for a new UW-Parkside chancellor has been a significant distraction for staff and students who continue to work hard to sustain the school's positive reputation as a thriving community of learning," Reilly said in a statement Wednesday.
Last week, Reilly announced that the UW System would review Parkside's search process in an effort to improve future searches at other UW campuses.
Reilly pointed to three areas where he believes the search fell short: insufficient professional references; unclear roles and responsibilities for search committee members; and a shortened timeline for finding a new Parkside leader.
Reilly is expected to hire an independent consultant to review Parkside's chancellor search and offer recommendations on how to avoid problems like those surrounding Felner's appointment, according to David Giroux, a UW System spokesman.
UW System officials hope to complete the review of Parkside's search by the middle of August.
"We know we want to have as much information in hand before the commencement of the searches at Green Bay and River Falls and before we begin reforming the Parkside search," Giroux said.