The UW System Board of Regents met Thursday to discuss a possible budget reduction in the UW and concerns over investments.
The UW System announced results of an exercise conducted to simulate a five percent budget cut. They found that this could cause cuts in enrollment of close to 8,000 students and the loss of nearly 1,000 faculty and staff. The exercise was conducted to analyze a possible future loss in funds from the state.
The exercise, conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Administration, was done in anticipation of government spending cuts due to the Wisconsin state budget deficit.
The Regents held an annual public forum Thursday for UW-Madison students, Wisconsin farmers and other concerned citizens to review investments made by the UW System.
Regent policy states that the UW System must not invest in companies that engage in discrimination or in damaging social or environmental practices. Students who attended the forum said they felt current UW System investments did not follow this policy.
\Other than two divestments they made in the late '90s, they've never followed this policy and they've always felt their fiduciary responsibility supercede their social responsibility ... if they are not following the policies that they agreed to enforce when they took office, then they should be removed from the Board of Regents,"" said Kurt Ellison, a UW-Madison senior and member of the UW InfoShop.
John Peck, a UW-Madison graduate student and a board member of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, said the UW Board of Regents made investments that conflicted with the policy in the past and are continuing to make the same type of investments.
""I'm disturbed with all the companies that we still invest in ... nothing has changed from last year, or from the year before,"" Peck said.
However, Regent James Klauser said outside investors help decide which organizations they support and which investments they should discontinue.
The UW System's investment in the Caterpillar Corporation was questioned by many students at the forum.
""As far as I know, the UW has $175,000 invested in Caterpillar ... which supplies Israel with bulldozers that allow them to demolish Palestinian houses. What Caterpillar is doing violates the social responsibility clause,"" said Mohammed Abed, a UW-Madison graduate student and member of the Alternative Palestinian Agenda.
Other concerns raised at the forum included investments in Ameritech, Microsoft and private prisons.
Citing past success in pulling UW system support, Peck said Texaco eventually pulled out of Burma because of the mounting pressure caused by divestments.
""Our investment policies speak volumes. [The UW] is not silent,"" Peck said.
Klauser said he is considering all the complaints made at the forum.
""I think all the perspectives are all legitimate ... We are analyzing and assessing each perceptive,"" Klauser said.
