At a special meeting Friday, the UW-Madison University Committee and several faculty members reviewed documents on tenure policy set to appear before the Board of Regents next week.
The policy comes as one result of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2016-’17 budget bill, which included measures to remove tenure from Wisconsin state law.
The Tenure Policy Task Force, consisting of administration and faculty from across the UW System, sought to identify important elements of tenure to be included in regent tenure policy. Critics of the proposed policy worry, however, that it will not fully protect against faculty removal and contract-breaking layoffs.
University Committee Chair Elizabeth Meyerand asked those present for feedback on specific flaws in the document to be put together in a letter of response. She said the committee was looking to send “the strongest message that we possibly can.”
The letter ultimately released will include details specific to UW-Madison, but David Vanness, an associate professor and president of UW-Madison’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said he believes other system schools should be planning similar statements.
Meyerand stressed that the tone of the letter be as factual as possible and not include any “emotional” language, but others called for a stronger statement.
One faculty member said after 100 years of tradition and policy being changed, releasing a polite statement would not represent how they really feel. Another urged for the letter to describe a “loss,” and to convey that UW-Madison is a “lesser university” today than before the removal of from state statutes.
Faculty members also expressed concern about program discontinuance as a result of Walker’s workforce-oriented plan, calling his focus on the workforce in higher education “shortsighted” and saying this direction would not “produce new economies.”
UW-Madison professor Michael Kissick contrasted the governor’s emphasis on job training with Einstein’s theory of relativity.
“[The theory] runs our entire world economy,” Kissick said. “And at the time he did it, who would have thought that was useful for workforce development?”
Vanness said the proposed policy included “telling language” that could be used to restructure system schools as more vocational institutions.
“If the Regents really do, at least a majority of them, want to reshape the university system in a new direction to reflect this ‘new Wisconsin Idea’ of training the workforce,” Vanness said. “We’ll look foolish if we don’t say something.”
