A popular and well-respected political science professor will be returning to the University of Wisconsin after leaving in 2007, UW officials said Thursday.

Jon Pevehouse, who took a position at the University of Chicago for triple his UW salary, will begin teaching at UW again in the fall of 2009.

Citing an improved political science department and a desire for his family to return, Pevehouse told The Badger Herald he does not regret leaving but is thrilled to be coming back.

“It’s very intense here at Chicago. It’s great, I’ve had a wonderful experience here; if I had to do it all over again I’d probably do it the same,” Pevehouse said. “It’s not like I’m sort of running out saying, ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake.’ It really is a pull back to Madison rather than a push out of here.”

After Pevehouse was offered a high-paying job at the University of Chicago, UW offered a pay increase to attempt to keep him, but he turned it down, looking for something new.

“It ended up being one of those things where I wanted to go out, where the grass starts looking greener on the other side of the fence,” Pevehouse said. “That ended up not being true.”

Pevehouse left UW at the same time as many other political science professors, which created a concern that the university was not offering competitive salaries.

Since then, Political Science Department Chair John Coleman has added new staff, who he called a “fantastic group,” including Professors Lisa Martin and Andrew Kydd.

Pevehouse lauded Coleman for his work in improving the department.

“We are building one of the most distinguished and accomplished international relations programs in the country,” Coleman wrote in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

College of Letters and Sciences Dean Gary Sandefur said he is “very proud” of Coleman and the improvements to the political science department.

“It’s a great thing for the department of political science for Jon to come back,” Sandefur said.

UW System spokesperson David Giroux said he is optimistic that the return of Pevehouse, as well as the addition of Kydd and Martin, will give UW-Madison’s political science department a national reputation.

“We’ve always said that there’s a lot for this city and this state to offer, that salaries and compensation were only one part of the equation,” Giroux said.

Giroux continued on to say UW will always attract high-profile professors and will always lose high-profile professors.

“We’re never going to be the highest-paying university in the country. Ever,” Giroux said. “We’d like to be average, and we haven’t been for many, many years.”

While at the University of Chicago, Pevehouse did not get the opportunity to teach undergraduates, something he said he missed and is looking forward to doing again in Madison.

“He was really informative; he made students interested in the subject,” said UW junior Rachel Friedlander-Holm, who was in a class taught by Pevehouse in his last semester at Madison. “I wasn’t really interested in poli sci before him, and he was very inspirational.”