The state Joint Finance Committee supported changes to Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed state budget Friday, through a GOP budget motion that restores $50 million from initial proposals back into the UW System.
The GOP plan enables the UW Board of Regents to lay off a tenured employee due to budget concerns and deletes current laws that support student government’s involvement with the chancellor in determining the disposition of fees.
Tenure was not backed by state statute, leading the Board of Regents to add it as a Board policy and leading the UW System tenure task force to continue convening, according to a joint statement released Friday evening with UW System President Ray Cross and Board of Regents Vice President Regina Millner.
"As we have stated in the past, these principles are deeply valued by UW-Madison and we are glad to see the tenets of those principles will be upheld,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a Friday release.
UW-Madison students could see the Associated Students of Madison morph from an interactive decision-making student government to one that suggests changes to the chancellor.
The Student Services Finance Committee could theoretically disband if the Legislature passes this motion, said ASM Chair Madison Laning.
“It’s taking away the power from students, faculty, classified staff and academic staff and giving that power to chancellors immediately, and then the chancellors would work with the Board of Regents,” Laning said. “It’s more getting rid of all of the stakeholders in a university beside the chancellor working with the Board of Regents with everything that happens on campus.”
Blank recognized and thanked Cross and Millner in the release for their continued commitment toward shared governance and tenure.
“Our number one goal is to continue to give our students the highest quality education possible, and we remain committed to working with the governor and legislators to make the case for renewed investment in higher education in Wisconsin,” Blank said in the release.
The GOP plan institutes a process that focuses on the chancellor working with the Board of Regents to institute policy on campus, while student government would likely only be able to propose plans.
“We appreciate that the action proposed today by the Joint Finance Committee keeps shared governance language in state statute, and we are reviewing other proposed changes related to shared governance,” said Cross and Millner in the release.
The budget motion calls for a decrease to the original $300 million budget cut to the UW System down to $250 million and the removal of the public authority model.
Reordering the UW System under a public authority model would grant the Board of Regents the autonomy to set policy that would otherwise need approval from the Legislature, such as removing shared governance from state statute.
Gov. Walker’s proposed freeze on in-state tuition until 2017 is maintained in the motion, but nonresident and graduate school tuition will see steadily increasing costs over the next couple years, starting with a $3,000 hike this fall.
“Today’s proposed action by the Joint Finance Committee represents a significant reduction in the cut to the UW System,” Cross said in a statement released Friday afternoon. “I want to express my gratitude to these legislators as well as the others who have worked to reduce the cut and provide the System with needed flexibilities.”
While visiting UW-Milwaukee in March, Cross said he would resign if UW lost shared governance and system-wide budget cuts were not decreased.
The proposal passed Friday night and the Senate and Assembly are expected to pass the budget by June.
