Final UNI Presidential Candidate's Name, Biography Released

Michael A. Wartell, chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, was announced today as the third and final candidate to be the next president of the University of Northern Iowa.

Wartell's name, biography and curriculum vitae were released Wednesday ahead of his upcoming campus visit.

Wartell will visit Cedar Falls Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 4 and 5. His public forum will be Feb. 4 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Old Central Ballroom, Maucker Union.

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Campus Visit Schedule for UNI Presidential Candidate Michael Wartell

Wartell was appointed chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne in July 1994. During the previous year, he was vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of chemistry at IPFW. He became Chancellor Emeritus in July, 2012. He also currently serves as chair of the U.S. Army Education Advisory Committee.

Wartell received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of New Mexico and an M.S. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1968 and 1971, respectively from Yale University.

According to his official biography:

As chancellor, Michael Wartell was responsible for Indiana’s fifth-largest university and the only comprehensive public university in northeastern Indiana where he led the campus in increasing enrollment, constructing more than thirty new buildings, and expanding programs, the endowment, and endowed professorships.

He is competing with William Ruud, president of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, and Avijit Ghosh, currently Senior Advisor to the President of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Ruud's open forum was Jan. 28. Ghosh visits UNI Wednesday, with an open forum at 2 p.m. in the UNI Commons, Slife Ballroom.

Current president Ben Allen has announced he will retire by July. After all the candidates visit campus, the Presidential Search Committee will forward its recommendation to the Board of Regents, which will have the final vote.