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Kim A. Wilcox (born May 5, 1954) is an American academic administrator who is the ninth chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. He was appointed on August 8, 2013 and began the position on August 19, 2013. He was previously at Michigan State University where he served for eight years as provost, executive vice president and professor of communicative sciences and disorders.

At Michigan State University, Wilcox was responsible for a major institutional restructuring that added 100 new faculty positions and expanded the university's two medical colleges.

Wilcox served as the president and CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents from 1999 to 2002, overseeing a major reorganization of education in the State of Kansas.

Early life and education

Wilcox was born on May 5, 1954, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University graduating with high honors in 1976. He subsequently completed a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in speech and hearing science from Purdue University under the direction of Macalyne Fristoe.

Career

Kim A. Wilcox was appointed as UC Riverside's ninth chancellor in August 2013. Since then, he has spurred a new era of growth of the campus, embarking on the expansion of the faculty by 300, development of new facilities for research, teaching, and public service, and a new emphasis on institutional globalization.

Under Wilcox's leadership, UC Riverside became a charter member of the University Innovation Alliance, a collaboration of major public research universities in America seeking to improve student graduation rates and outcomes across all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Wilcox participated in the 2014 White House College Opportunity Day of Action, at which President Barack Obama recognized the Riverside County Education Collaborative and the participation of UCR and regional school districts in improving the pipeline from K-12 to two- and four-year colleges. Ted Mitchell, U.S. Under Secretary of Education, praised UC Riverside for its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

During Wilcox's tenure, UC Riverside has increased diversity among students, faculty, and administration, launched its first-ever $300 million fundraising campaign, set new milestones for research funding, and broke ground on a new Multidisciplinary Research Building.

Wilcox served as a consultant with the Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization "Partnership to Cut Poverty and Hunger in Africa".

Research

Wilcox's primary work has been in the acoustics of speech production. Much of his early work focused on the effects of neurological impairments to the speech musculature. His later work increasingly focused on developmental speech and language issues including remediation of speech disorders in children.

Criticism of college rankings

Wilcox has been a vocal critic of commercial college rankings such as those published by U.S. News & World Report. In a 2015 interview with the Washington Post, Wilcox argued that the U.S. News formula for ranking colleges was inconsistent with the mission of public higher education. The reporter describes Wilcox as believing that 'the U.S. News formula is mostly about wealth and perceptions. It rewards schools that raise and spend a lot of money... and provides little incentive for schools to become more efficient at serving students with disadvantages." In 2016, Wilcox published an opinion piece in the San Diego Union Tribune arguing that prospective college students should focus on rankings based on graduation and retention rates as opposed to those based on reputation and acceptance rates.

Leadership crisis

On November 29, 2016, the UC Riverside Faculty Senate held a town hall meeting to address widespread concerns about Wilcox's leadership. Concerns raised at the meeting included "inadequate planning for campus growth, poorly maintained facilities..., low morale," and "a feeling of disconnect between Chancellor Kim Wilcox's office and the university's 852 faculty members." In a December 5, 2016 letter to the Faculty Senate, Wilcox admitted the problems with his leadership, acknowledging that "Clearly, we have significant work ahead of us to rectify this situation."

On December 16, 2016, Wilcox's hand-picked choice for UC Riverside executive vice-chancellor and provost, Paul D'Anieri, resigned rather than face a vote of no confidence by the Faculty Senate. The faculty strongly objected to the "top-down" management style fostered by Wilcox and D'Anieri, to their incompetent handling of new faculty hires, and to the "climate of fear and mistrust" they had generated on campus. Despite claiming that "D’Anieri should not be blamed for decisions... that were made collectively by senior administrators", Wilcox accepted his subordinate's resignation.

A "cluster hiring" initiative spearheaded by Wilcox and D'Anieri had drawn sharp criticism from the Faculty Senate for its extremely poor planning and lack of transparency. A survey of the faculty in early 2016 found widespread agreement that the initiative had been poorly conceived and mismanaged. One professor commented that “The faculty, as far as I can tell, overwhelmingly loathes and resents the cluster hiring plan.... It threatens to inflict damage to academic programs on this campus that may take literally decades to undo – if it can be undone.” At the November 29 town hall meeting, faculty complained that new hires had been brought in without sufficient investment in infrastructure, leading to a serious shortage of office and laboratory space and a strain on existing facilities. As a result of these criticisms, Wilcox was forced to declare an immediate moratorium on any major new initiatives at UC Riverside.

References

1. University of California, Riverside (26 August 2013). "Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox: Biography". Web page Archived 2013-10-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
2. Wisconsin Chancellor search "Kim Wilcox CV" . Retrieved 2013-08-26
3. Wilcox, Kim Arthur (1980). Identification and discrimination of normal and defective /s/ by /s/-misarticulating and normal children (Ph.D. thesis). Purdue University. OCLC 8165156 – via ProQuest.
4. "President' Perspective". Michigan State University Alumni Association. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
5. "Michigan State Provost Kim Wilcox to step down in July". MLive Media Group. 27 December 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
6. "Chancellor: About the Chancellor". chancellor.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
7. "University Innovation Alliance". University Innovation Alliance. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
8. "The White House College Opportunity Day of Action". whitehouse.gov. 2014-12-03. Retrieved 2017-01-14 – via National Archives.
9. WALL, STEPHEN. "Under Secretary of Education praises UC Riverside for grad rates". Press Enterprise. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
10. "UC Riverside Campaign Regents Endorsement" (PDF).
11. "University of California, Riverside Campus Background" (PDF).
12. MUCKENFUSS, MARK. "UC RIVERSIDE: Chancellor plans $150 million lab center". Press Enterprise. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
13. The State News (1 July 2013). "Kim Wilcox officially steps down as MSU Provost". news story. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
14. "Kim Wilcox recommended as MSU provost". MSU Today. Michigan State University. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
15. Rice, Mabel; Wilcox, Kim (January 1995). Building Language Focused Curriculum for the Preschool Classroom, Volume 1: A Foundation for Lifelong Communication. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company. ISBN 1557661774.
16. Anderson, Nick. "UC-Riverside vs. U.S. News: A university leader scoffs at the rankings". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
17. Wilcox, Kim (11 November 2016). "Media rankings don't address crucial qualities of universities". The San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
18. UC Riverside faculty, chancellor promise more cooperation
19. UC Riverside provost resigns amid leadership crisis
20. "UC Riverside provost to resign amid widespread faculty concerns over his leadership style". Los Angeles Times. 2016-12-17. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04.
21. Cluster-Hiring Cluster &%*#?
22. UC RIVERSIDE: Changes seen as both painful, promising
23. November 29, 2016 Town Hall meeting of the UC Riverside Faculty Senate
24. UC Riverside faculty targets provost Paul D'Anieri with no-confidence vote

• Chancellors of the University of California, Riverside
• Living people
• Michigan State University alumni
• Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences alumni
• Michigan State University faculty
• Purdue University faculty
• University of Missouri faculty
• 1954 births