Zimpher named as new UC president

CINCINNATI -- In her five years as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Nancy Zimpher became known for getting her school involved in the city.\nIn her new job as University of Cincinnati president, she wants the community to help her shape the school's future.\nHer predecessor in Cincinnati, Joseph Steger, oversaw a $1 billion construction boom of academic buildings and student housing, plus an expansion of the university's research programs. The 33,000-student public university, with a medical school, law school and two branch campuses, is Ohio's second-largest school, behind Ohio State University.\nZimpher, 56, begins Oct. 1 in her $280,000-a-year job. The university's board of trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to accept her as the only finalist recommended by a search committee.\nShe said she will establish a community panel to advise her in planning the school's future.\n"We have to set the table for the next decade. We have to talk about our region, our aspirations," she said. "That'll be the first big challenge. A lot of people will want to have a say in that. I'm not going to write this by myself."\nZimpher had been chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1998, where she was the first woman to lead the public school with 24,000 students.\nShe will become the 25th president of the University of Cincinnati and the first woman president in its 184-year history. The university is one of the city's largest employers, with a work force of about 14,250.\n"Dr. Zimpher is a dynamic and effective leader with the proven ability to integrate the university as a committed partner in the progress of its community," said George Schaefer Jr., a Cincinnati banker who is chairman of the university's board of trustees.\nZimpher's salary will be increased from the $275,000 paid to Steger.\nShe is from Gallipolis in southern Ohio and began her career in 1991 at Ohio State University, where she served in several posts including dean of the education school.\nSteger, 66, announced last year that he would retire this year as president. He plans to become a professor in the business school to teach people how to set up and operate nonprofit agencies.\nIn Milwaukee, Zimpher became known as an advocate for involving her school in public-private partnerships in housing, economic development and education.\n"I have a great deal of love and respect for Milwaukee," she said. "Milwaukee is a really hard place to leave. And I wasn't done. You're never finished. It was wrenching, in that regard"