The Faculty Senate's University Committee discussed a proposal to ensure faculty rights to institutional criticism during its meeting Monday.
Donald Downs, a UW-Madison professor who specializes in the First Amendment, presented the proposal as a response to a 2006 Supreme Court case that ruled that public employees could be disciplined for criticisms made while acting as an employee.
According to Downs, the law creates a paradox for professors, who are encouraged to air their grievances in-house as opposed to complaining to the press, but are now vulnerable to punishment for doing so, as an engineering professor at UW-Milwaukee recently discovered.
UW-Madison's current policy protects faculty against restrictions on speech related to scholarly opinions, research and creative expression. The proposed policy would further guarantee their right to speak as university employees ""on matters of public concern as well as on matters related to professional duties, the functioning of the University and University positions and policies.""
Downs said the policy would differ from similar amendments passed by the University of Minnesota in June because it explicitly covers the right to speak as an employee and would not apply to ""the willful obstruction or interference with constitutional university policies or missions.""
""Let's say I disagree with affirmative action. I could publicly criticize it, but it would be utterly inappropriate … to do something to try to obstruct that policy, because that would be insubordination.""
Faculty would also need to clarify they were not speaking for the entire university when addressing matters of public concern.
One member of the Committee was absent, so a decision to recommend the proposal to the full Faculty Senate had to be delayed, though reactions were positive and unsatisfied with relying on UW-Madison's tradition for ""sifting and winnowing"" of protection.
""Rules are there in part so that, should the culture shift, the rules are still there,"" committee member Judith Burstyn said.
