UNDATED (WSAU) Former U-W Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin was inaugurated yesterday as the new president of Amherst College in Massachusetts. Martin left the U-W this summer -- and she partially blamed heavy opposition to her plan to separate the Madison campus from the 25 others in the university system.

The 60-year-old Martin gets a fresh start at Amherst, where she's the first female president since that school was founded in 1821. At her inaugural ceremony, Martin praised Amherst's past-and-present leaders for expanding the school's racial, cultural, and religious diversity. And she promised that quote, "the education we offer is infused with those benefits."

As a private school, Martin won't have to deal with the intense state politics that marked her time at the public U-W. Amherst has 1,750 students, and is among the nation's top liberal arts colleges.