Prior to capping off an election night of blue wave in Wisconsin, Governor-elect Tony Evers vocalized his desire to fill the empty spaces on the UW System Board of Regents.
In fact, Evers said he “can’t wait” to make the replacements.
After Gov. Walker’s budget cuts in 2015, the UW-Madison faculty declared ‘no-confidence’ in the UW System Board of Regents and President Ray Cross.
Can Evers restore trust in education policy to the people he once worked with?
Evers’ gubernatorial term will begin on Jan. 7 and with that, he will replace at least 10 of the 18 regent seats. However, due to Rep. Bryan Steil congressional win and two other vacancies — including his own as outgoing state superintendent — that number may increase to more advocates of postsecondary education.
On the other hand, Walker could utilize his ‘lame-duck’ period to fill those seats.
Walker previously appointed 14 of the regents, each serving seven-year terms. The remaining two are student appointees that remain a regent for two years. The state superintendent and the Wisconsin Technical College System Board president are the remaining two permanent positions, which are not picked by the governor.
Throughout Walker’s eight years in office, regents to support legislation favored by Republican legislators. The lone sole to object was often Evers, who largely advocated for increasing state support.
Along with the withdrawal of $250 million in UW System funds, Walker also erased protections for tenured positions alongside staking control over shared governance by shedding decision-making power from faculty, students and staff to university chancellors and the regents.
In the days following these significant changes to UW System, faculty grew infuriated. The new policies would mean less protection for their jobs and a reduction in funds for the departments they worked it.
For Noel Radomski, the director of UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, it was nothing short of justified.
“If I were other universities, I’d be poaching as many of our top faculty as possible,” he said. “It’s going to be open season.”
Evers is hoping to “revisit” the tenure protections to make the decision-making process more inclusive for campus faculty and students, which would expand shared governance throughout the universities.
When asked about Evers’ future changes to the regents in the foreseeable future, Cross declined an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal.
The largest concern for Evers as he aims to improve higher education is the lack of resources.
He has plans to “fund the freeze,” which will provide more money to the UW System to counteract the losses from six years of frozen tuition costs. However, he did not include how he would increase that support.
Some campuses face faculty and degree program cutbacks, leading humanities majors to suffer the most. Evers spoke on the necessity for universities to prepare students for the workforce, but not at the loss of being valued, critical thinkers — a fundamental element of the Wisconsin Idea.
The governor-elect’s plans for readjustment did not go unnoticed by Regents president John Behling, who said that Evers should not “politicize the hard work” they do.
Evers will continue to serve as state superintendent until he is sworn in as governor. Since there is no one lined up to succeed him, he has not announced whether he will call a special election or appoint someone to complete his term.
