Looking to the Board of Regents' April meeting

This Thursday and Friday, the Board of Regents will approve or dismiss a slate of issues that have been discussed at UW-Madison throughout the semester.

Amazon pickup

Following legislative change in shared-governance structures, an uproar erupted this fall when Amazon preliminary announced the new pickup location would be housed alongside the Multicultural Student Center in the Red Gym.

The Board of Regents approved this location in the original contract last August before consulting many university groups. Students across campus, largely the Associated Students of Madison, campaigned heavily against this, citing concerns for safe spaces and a lack of respect for the university’s shared governance process.

The site was eventually moved and it was recently announced that Sellery Residence Hall will house the pickup location. Amazon’a new contract before the board says construction on the location would begin this summer and the company will annually pay $190,000 to UW-Madison, minus the cost of facility improvements. This contract is $90,000 more than the $100,000 agreed to for the Red Gym location.

SERF

As part of the Campus Master Plan, UW-Madison plans to remodel the 35-year-old Southeast Recreational Facility and seeks the final go-ahead from regents.

Architects of this plan have stressed the value it will add to student-life and the school’s attractiveness to applicants. Part of the plans include more than quadrupling the amount of work-out space, adding walls of windows, gender-neutral bathrooms and a 50-meter pool capable of hosting NCAA tournaments.

Pending regent approval of the budget, demolition will begin this August.

Post-tenure review

Among four other schools, UW-Madison’s proposed post-tenure review policy awaits approval from the board. After changes to tenure in state statutes, the board mandated that schools change their policy and installed an interim policy giving final dismissal approval to administrators.

Campuses were allowed to tailor the policy to their own school before final approval. UW-Madison submitted a revised version earlier, but it was rejected and has been rewritten.

The University Committee’s current draft is based on UW-Milwaukee’s policy and was heavily scrutinized by the Faculty Senate. They ultimately endorsed the policy under a time-crunch saying it, “preserv[ed] some faculty shared governance.”