UCLA law dean Jennifer Mnookin named next UW-Madison chancellor

Jennifer Mnookin, the dean of the College of California, Los Angeles regulation college, will turn out to be the subsequent chancellor of Wisconsin’s flagship college this summer time. 

The UW System Board of Regents unanimously voted on Monday for Mnookin to take the highest put up on the College of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Whereas the size of the varsity Mnookin has led since 2015 — about 1,350 college students, 130 full-time college and 150 workers — pales compared to UW-Madison’s 45,000 college students and 20,000 workers, she brings deep familiarity with public college programs, having spent 17 years at UCLA and 6 years on the College of Virginia College of Regulation.

Mnookin replaces Rebecca Clean, who departs on the finish of this month to turn out to be president of Northwestern College. The seek for Clean’s successor started late final 12 months and yielded 37 candidates, seven of whom have been girls and 16 who self-reported as an individual of colour, in response to the UW System. 

Throughout a current go to to the Madison campus, Mnookin recommended utilizing the “Wisconsin Concept,” a perception enshrined in state regulation that Wisconsin’s greater training system ought to present advantages past the campus, as a mannequin for why public universities matter. 

Whereas UCLA additionally prioritizes service to its state, Mnookin stated her college lacks a sublime and descriptive phrase to clarify its mission — “we don’t have a California Concept,” she stated — in the best way Wisconsin does. 

Mnookin stated her circle of relatives not too long ago benefited from the Wisconsin Concept when she donated a kidney in late 2020 to her dad, who’s a longtime Harvard Regulation College professor. The cross-country transplant was doable due to an answer developed at UW-Madison that extends the time that an organ may be safely saved outdoors of a physique. 

“I believe UW-Madison has the prospect to promote that imaginative and prescient for what a public college is and may be as a nationwide and even international mannequin,” she stated at a public discussion board earlier this month. 

Requested there how she would offset a decades-long decline in state funding to UW-Madison, Mnookin stated she would enhance philanthropy efforts, construct on business partnerships and create new diploma applications.

“It will be a giant mistake to only sit and await the state to be our reply,” she stated.

Mnookin earned her bachelor’s diploma in social research from Harvard, a regulation diploma from Yale College and a doctorate diploma from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise. She has printed extensively on points referring to forensic science.

Mnookin gained out amongst 4 different finalists: Marie Lynn Miranda, a College of Notre Dame statistics professor and former provost; Ann Cudd, the College of Pittsburgh provost; Daniel Reed, a College of Utah pc science professor and former provost; and John Karl Scholz, the provost at UW-Madison. 

It is a creating story and will likely be up to date.