After much discussion Monday, the UW-Madison Faculty Senate passed an amended form of the UW System Board of Regents' proposed disciplinary plan. Their decision will be passed on to the Regents later this week.
The Regents' proposed code, UW-System 7, concentrates on procedures for the dismissal of faculty in special cases, as when faculty are charged or convicted of felonies that may cause harm to the university.
Since the Regents have set May 7 as the deadline for decision on the proposal, the Faculty Senate needed to concur on an amended version Monday in order to have a say in the proposal's final language.
As a faculty today we need to respond in a constructive manner to the Regent proposal,\ University Committee member Steven Cramer said. ""And that's what we're trying to achieve here with the proposal we're bringing forward.""
Under the faculty's amended plan, as the guilt of staff members becomes more probable, the severity of their penalty rises, but the punishment process consequently becomes more complex and the investigation more thorough.
A concern expressed at previous meetings, that UWS 7's maximum investigation period of 60 days was too short was voiced Monday, but was quickly passed over.
""Certainly we thought long about what the timeline should be,"" Cramer said. ""But the two-month period seems to be a tolerable amount of time as opposed to six months.""
Much of Monday's debate circled around specific language in the amended version. Senators argued that the faculty should not shy away from changing the proposal's language merely to please the Regents.
""Why do we meet at all if we don't have the mind to tell them what we think would be best?"" District 77 Senator James Pawley said.
But according to University Committee member Robert Mathieu, the Regents may be reluctant to pass an amended proposal.
""There are valid possible concerns about how we're going to be abused by this law,"" said Mathieu. ""But remember the other thing we're trying to accomplish is the protection of the students and the university and our colleagues who rely on … the well-being of the campus.""
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