Last week, President Mark Emmert announced a series of administrative consolidations and changes as a result of the retirement of Executive Vice President Weldon Ihrig, who is set to step down later this quarter.

"[Ihrig]'s been doing this stuff a long time, first at Ohio State, then the Oregon system," said Norm Arkans, director of media relations. "He put the effort in."

The changes include the instatement of V'Ella Warren, vice president for financial management, as senior vice president for finance and administration; the direct reporting of Mindy Kornberg, vice president for human resources, to Mark Emmert; the re-allocation of the UW Police Department to the supervision of Eric Godfrey, vice provost for student life; and the change of Provost Phyllis Wise's job title from vice president to executive vice president.

"This internal restructuring aligns programs and units with our talented administrators," Emmert said in a statement. "Weldon Ihrig oversaw a very large and very important part of the University's administrative infrastructure, and he did so superbly for many years."

The restructuring and redistribution of responsibilities means no one is being hired to replace Ihrig.

"It's really, from my perspective, a testament to the work that Weldon did," Arkans said. "He really developed a strong team, to be able to take on all of his responsibilities."

Wise, formerly provost and vice president for academic affairs, will now be assuming Ihrig's former "executive" role as the provost and executive vice president.

"She's formerly 'provost,' which of course nobody understands," Arkans said. "The title is in recognition of the fact that her responsibilities include not just academic affairs, but overall operations."

The relocation of the UWPD to Student Life is a reinforcement of the campus police's primary purpose.

"The UWPD is of course here to protect all of us," Arkans said. "But [since] the biggest portion of the population is students, that relocation really makes a lot of sense."

[Reach reporter Jeff Tripoli at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]