URBANA — President Michael Hogan praised incoming Chancellor Phyllis Wise as the best of both scholar and administrator.

The new vice president of the University of Illinois starts her duties Oct. 1, but has already made the rounds in Chicago and Springfield, where she met with Gov. Pat Quinn Tuesday morning.

A veteran of harsh budget cuts at the University of Washington, where she served as interim president as well as provost, Wise told reporters she'd work closely with Hogan in meeting with legislators.

They will work, she said, to keep the UI above the mounting woes at Washington, which included a 20-percent tuition increase.

"Nobody is happier than I am" with the choice, Hogan said, though he expressed whispered conspiratorial misgivings that Wise had connections to the hated University of Michigan, where she went to graduate school.

Trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy praised the "high ethical standards" of the outgoing interim Chancellor Robert Easter, who has served for more than a year and a half since President B. Joseph White and Chancellor Richard Herman resigned in the wake of the Category I politically connected enrollment scandal.

Kennedy was named to the trustees in a house-cleaning after the scandal broke, and noted that Urbana had gone "through perhaps its most thorough self-examination in history."

He praised Easter for his "bold leadership," including his work on Stewarding Excellence, the team investigation that resulted in several programs being either closed or radically reformed.

Wise, 66, said she was "honored and humbled" to take the leadership position after a long career in zoology and administration. She was wearing an enormous orange blossom on her lapel.

"You cannot have too much orange and blue," Hogan told her, presenting her with orangeish gifts, as did the Easter family.

Wise called the Urbana campus "one of the most respected on the planet."

Addressing Easter as a fellow once-interim leader, she said "What you have done, Bob, is just short of a miracle."

Easter received a standing ovation from the large crowd at the Illini Union.

Perhaps addressing campus concerns that the UI's focus is turning ever more toward Chicago, Kennedy noted that Urbana "is the flagship ... the pride of Illinois" and spoke at length about its accomplishments.

The chancellor said her goal was to maintain the excellence already achieved at Illinois.

She reiterated that she would donate board member pay from Nike to scholarships, as she had done at Washington, where the issue had been controversial before she was named interim president.