Former UMass-Amherst Interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams will return to the UMass system on a full-time basis this July as senior vice president for academic and student affairs and international relations, the president’s office announced this week. UMass President Jack M. Wilson announced the appointment on Tuesday. “I am very pleased to have a scholar and administrator of Dr. Williams’ stature joining the president’s office,” said Wilson. “With her international profile and her extensive experience at two major research universities, Marcie Williams brings to this position a high regard for scholarship, and instinct for collaboration and innovation and an abiding concern for students.” The search for a vice president of academic affairs, put in gear after Vice President of Academic Affairs and Interim President Wilson was appointed to the permanent position by the UMass Board of Trustees last March, ran into several problems when Wilson and a finalist couldn’t come to terms on some salary issues. The search was re-opened in November. Dr. Williams will make several visits until this coming summer, as she finishes up her current responsibilities at Michigan State University, where she received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. She also held a number of administrative and academic positions prior to her time as deputy chancellor at the Amherst campus, which she assumed in 1994. She went back soon after John Lombardi was appointed permanent chancellor of UMass Amherst. In addition to her previous post as interim chancellor at the flagship campus from July 2001 through July 2002, Williams also held a number of other academic and administrative level jobs on both the campus and system levels, including deputy chancellor and professor of English and comparative literature at UMass-Amherst. The new vice president is expected to serve as the chief academic, student, and international relations officer for the five campuses and 58,000 students within the UMass system. “I very much look forward to returning to the University of Massachusetts,” said Williams in Tuesday’s press release. “I am gratified that President Wilson has called upon me, and I look forward to working with the president, the chancellors, the students, the faculty and all the other members of the UMass community in an ongoing effort to provide our citizens with a public university system of unsurpassed excellence