Two key UW-Madison officials attended a conference at a New Mexico resort where vendors who paid large fees were promised one-on-one meetings with university, school and hospital officials who attended.
Vendors participating in the “Sustainable Operations Summit” in June each paid $18,500 to event organizer CraigMichaels Inc. for 15 one-on-one sales meetings with officials at the summit, or $25,500 if the vendor sent two representatives to each meet with 15 people, according to the event organizer.
The higher-ranking UW official who attended denied knowing about the fees, but Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said the practice appeared to be “a dire sign of the times. The university should resist a temptation to act the way people at the State Capitol act. That people can pay to get a higher degree of access to you is dead wrong.”