Tammy Evetovich

Dr. Tammy Evetovich is one of the three candidates for Chancellor of UW-Platteville and the first to sit for an open campus forum. Evetovich has previously served as the Dean of Natural and Social Sciences at Wayne State College, NE, as well as the Provost for UW-Platteville. Evetovich is also the current Interim Chancellor for UW-Platteville, giving her a unique perspective on campus issues.

“I would describe my leadership style as collaborative, engaging, visible, authentic and mission-aligned,” stated Evetovich. “I focus on maximizing relationships.”

She also talked about her time as interim chancellor and what she feels she’s accomplished. 

Evetovich also talked about her time as Interim Chancellor and what she feels she’s accomplished. She started by talking about the priorities the university identified for the 2022-2023 school year, stating their main goals were the budget and enrollment.

“We are making great progress on our enrollment goals,” Evetovich added. “I am very optimistic about our enrollment future.”

As for the budget, Evetovich listed the many ways she and her peers have been working to fix the current budget. “We established a budget task force and are developing a multi-year fiscal recovery plan to address the structural deficit”

When asked about making changes on campus, and what that looks like, Evetovich talked about her plans and the stages of change she uses. She talked about creating urgency, and finding the right people to make a task force to help solve the issue.

In the same answer, she talked about how we, as a campus, should act moving forward. “I do think we need to stop competing, or considering it competing, against other institutions.” Evetovich said. “We need to find our centers of excellence … hone our identity and lean into that.”

Evetovich continued to mention identity repeatedly during her forum, making it a major part of her stance.

At one point, Evetovich said. “We all, as an institution, have to own our identity … and we need to own those values, own that identity (and) allocate our resources appropriately so we have a sustainable future.”

Overall, Evetovich’s main goals are to recover our current budget, and within the next few years, have the campus come together and identify itself and what it will become, using that newfound identity to build a campus that not only proves and excels in that identity, but also exceeds it with the individualization that every college student needs. 

Artanya Wesley 

Dr. Artanya Wesley is one of three candidates for Chancellor of UW-Platteville, and the second to sit for an open campus forum. Wesley has served as the Senior Academic Planner for Student Affairs in the UW System and the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UW-Whitewater.

Wesley started by introducing her history with UW-Platteville saying, “I received my undergraduate as well as my master’s degree from this great institution.”

She talked about how this was a place for her to grow up and learn as an adult and how UW-Platteville helped get her the jobs she has held throughout her career. She describes this position as “personal for (me), it’s like coming home.” 

Wesley talked about how a big part of her leadership style is partnership and collaboration. “I am a principle leader, I stand in integrity, I think integrity is critically important because it builds trust,” Wesley said.

She believes that we need to come together when we make decisions, stating, “We want to make sure that we’re thinking about those who aren’t sitting at the table, or who may not have a voice.”

The other part of Wesley’s leadership style is listening to understand. “Oftentimes people listen to respond, and so there’s a lack of understanding or miscommunication that happens,” Wesley explained. “When you listen to understand, you’re able to find the common ground and recognize you both want the same thing.”

When asked about mental health, Wesley responded, “Mental health is something we need to normalize on campus … a large part of normalizing it is educating ourselves about it and talking about it, and not just in the counseling center or within our division of student health services.”

She talked about needing to know both how to help students and how to get students to seek the help they need.

“A lot of students don’t want to take the time out and step away from their academics because they are afraid to fall behind.” Wesley explained.

Other topics she was asked about and discussed include building repairs, sustainability on campus, program array and finding the answers to reform through compromise and discussion rather than brute force.

Wesley finished her forum talking about her perspective on her job as chancellor, talking about how she largely has a perspective of student service and the importance of others, stating, “When you sit at the cabinet table, you have to be an institutional thinker. What you’re addressing is not just student service things.” 

Philip Cavalier 

Dr. Philip Cavalier is one of the three candidates for chancellor of UW-Platteville, and the third to sit for an open campus forum. Cavalier has previously served as the as the Provost at three institutions: Eureka College, IL, Lyon College, AR and the University of Tennessee-Martin, TN. He is currently the interim chancellor at UT-Martin.

Cavalier started the forum by detailing his reasons for wanting to work at UW-Platteville. He compared UT-Martin, where he works currently, to UW-Platteville, connecting that the size, location and notable programs are very similar. 

When asked about students’ involvement in decisions and budgets, Cavalier said that he thinks everyone on campus should know where the budget stands.

He also added that the student perspective is unique, stating, “When you’re talking about things like deferred maintenance in the dorms and classrooms, (students) experience those in a different way than the rest of us. I think hearing your input about that and the experiences you’re having are incredibly valuable.”

Cavalier also had a lot to say when it came to inclusion on campus for BIPOC and LGBT+ communities. “There are two pieces to it. One is ‘how do you recruit more students here?’” Cavalier said “Number two: when they come to campus to visit, what’s the experience they have?”

He talked about how building an inclusive atmosphere can’t be for visits alone, adding, “It’s great to bring students to campus, but if you say ‘That’s the work, it’s done’, then you’ve missed the fact being on campus doesn’t mean automatically feeling like you belong on campus.”

He then talked about how to create that atmosphere, not just through surveys, but by talking to those students. “If you’re a black female from Chicago, you experience these kinds of things that, really, no one’s trying to sort out how you do it better, or help that person belong more. I don’t think you sus that out by looking at percentages of survey responses”

A follow-up question asked him to name specific examples of how to help BIPOC and LGBT+ communities on campus, and he talked about the event he recently helped put on. “We just finished a pride year at UT-Martin. I’m very proud of that, and I’m very proud of the history professor I worked with to get that going,” Cavalier said.

He described the events he put on throughout the year, starting with a pride picnic, then hosting a variety of LGBT+-centered events throughout the rest of the year “Does that change all parts of the problem? No,” Cavalier finished. “But I will tell you the students who were in that room felt a whole lot more like they belonged than a year ago when nothing at all happened to make them feel that way.”

Cavalier also touched on a variety of different issues throughout his forum, including trying to make the branch campus(es) feel more connected to the main campus, pursuing and continuing connections with graduates from UW-Platteville, building maintenance and the importance of the library on campus