UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank responded Friday to the UW System Board of Regents recent vote regarding tenure policy in a post on her blog.
The regents voted for new tenure resolutions in their meeting Thursday in an attempt to supplement faculty tenure protections, which were stripped from state statutes by Gov. Scott Walker last July.
The resolutions outline various conditions for tenured faculty, post-tenure review of faculty performance and procedures related to financial emergency or program discontinuance in which it would be necessary to lay off tenured faculty. These provisions were widely panned by faculty as anti-education and insufficient in protecting academic freedom.
In her blog post, Blank cited the need for strong tenure protections, and said the regents’ resolutions work toward that goal.
“Maintaining a tenure policy as strong as our peer institutions across the country is essential to continuing to attract and retain top faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,” Blank said. “The broad System-wide policy adopted by the Regents today is similar to policies at a number of other institutions.”
According to Blank, however, the progress in tenure policy is not over.
“I look forward to advancing the policy and procedures specific to UW–Madison for consideration by the Regents in April,” Blank said.
Blank expressed concerns, however, over faculty criticism of the regents’ and chancellors’ actions.
“I am concerned that some of the conversations around these issues suggest that the interests of chancellors and faculty are not aligned,” Blank said. ‘“I believe that we can only maintain the quality of this university if we continue our long tradition of collaboration.”
