Donna Shalala, chancellor, 1988-1993: Shalala, the first female chancellor at the university, made strong efforts to connect the Madison campus with the rest of the community. Her Madison Plan, an attempt to recruit and hire minorities, encouraged the university to address the diversity issue. The UW Athletic Department experienced success with Shalala's support.

Donna Shalala: Shalala was UW-Madison's first female chancellor. She became an agent of change, communication and cooperation, ranging from the Athletic Department to the Madison Plan, an attempt to increase diversity at the university.

Donna Shalala's legacy as chancellor at UW-Madison can't be discussed without starting -- and finishing -- with her imprint on the athletic department. Her supporters and detractors both referred to her as chancellor of that department because of her keen interest in athletics, an interest that stretched from her role in administration to her role as what she commonly called the Badgers' No. 1 fan. Shalala dived into the inner workings of the athletic department with vigor, helping transform what many considered a moribund, debt-ridden operation into one of national prominence and success. In the fall of 1989, she fired athletic director Ade Sponberg and football coach Don Morton within a month of each other, replacing them with Pat Richter and Barry Alvarez, respectively, the two most publicly prominent figures in the revitalized program. And in the spring of 1990, she supported, and some contend engineered, one of the more controversial athletic decisions in UW history -- the cutting of five sports, including baseball. She left Madison to work for President Bill Clinton's administration as secretary of Health and Human Services, and then to president at the University of Miami (Fla.). "I would characterize her as a catalyst," said Richter. "She didn't think a world-class university should have a second-class athletic program."