Many of you have probably heard of a proposal, as part of the Budget Repair Bill, to “spin off” the University of Wisconsin at Madison from the UW System. Under this proposal, called “The New Badger Partnership,” UW-Madison would operate under a separate board that would provide it with greater control of its own budget.
When University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin began campaigning her New Badger Partnership last year, she made it clear the Madison campus has its own unique needs. In formulating a way to deal with these needs, she was proactive, both in outlining a plan and working with the new governor.
Governor Scott Walker says he?s open to a plan that would offer campuses in the UW-System more flexibility, similar to what he?s offering UW-Madison.
Here?s the headline: the Wisconsin Republican Party has issued an Open Records Law request for access to my emails since January 1 in response to a blog entry I posted on March 15 concerning the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in influencing recent legislation in this state and across the country. I find this a disturbing development, and hope readers will bear with me as I explain the strange circumstances in which I find myself as a result.
Chancellor Biddy Martin just can?t catch a break when it comes to the New Badger Partnership. After she attracted support from major student leaders across campus, Martin was left with the daunting task of capturing the heart of one of Wisconsin?s most intransigent politicians to date?Gov. Scott Walker.
Budget cuts are flying around mercilessly these days. Madison is facing a 13-percent budget cut in Scott Walker?s proposed budget bill and needs to find ways to absorb those costs without just passing them on to students. Public authority status, included in the budget, is one proposal aiming to do just that, but Chancellor Biddy Martin is looking for other cost-reductions as well. This week, the administration announced a contract with Huron Consulting Group to look for ways to improve efficiency on campus and save the university money.
Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls voted overwhelmingly Thursday to form a union with collective bargaining rights through AFT-Wisconsin, a statewide labor federation affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. The vote was 148 to 16 in favor of union representation, AFT-Wisconsin said in a news release.
Chancellors from 13 UW System schools sent a letter Wednesday to state legislators asking for support on the Wisconsin Idea Partnership in the 2011-?13 biennial budget.
Gov. Scott Walker has fired the lawyers defending the state in a challenge to Wisconsin?s domestic partnership law. But the governor?s spokesman said his office “is still working to appoint a new counsel to the case.” Madison attorney Lester Pines informed Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser in a March 22 letter that his firm, Cullen Weston Pines & Bach, had been “terminated” by Walker as counsel for the state in the lawsuit filed in 2009 by Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative advocacy group.
Thirteen University of Wisconsin chancellors asked state lawmakers Wednesday to support a new plan that would give all their schools more autonomy but wouldn?t spin off UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System. The chancellors asked legislators in a letter to consider a six-pillar proposal called the Wisconsin Idea Partnership. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said it would be difficult to comment on the chancellors? plan until more specifics were released.
UW-Madison is embarking on an external study to look for areas where the university could function more cheaply, effectively and efficiently. There are no cost estimates yet for the contract that university leaders signed with Huron Consulting Group earlier this month. Instead, the company will bill the university on an hourly basis, giving the university flexibility on how much it wants to spend, said Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration.
UW-Madison, please don?t go.That?s the gist of a letter to state legislators Wednesday, signed by all of the chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System ? except UW-Madison?s Chancellor Biddy Martin. The 13 university leaders asked legislators to support the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, a UW System proposal that calls for more autonomy for all UW campuses, but as part of a unified system. In a dueling letter, also to state legislators, Martin wrote that she is “skeptical” of the UW System plan. She charged that details are not clear, while a plan that would make UW-Madison a “public authority” with its own board of trustees is already in Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed budget.
The Wisconsin Idea Partnership is a win-win for all UW campuses and all UW students. It maintains public ownership and accountability and promotes a synergistic approach in which all campuses work together to revitalize the state?s economy.
We hope that legislators will recognize that the whole is sometimes greater than the sum of its parts – a truism that certainly applies to one of the nation?s great public university systems. [A column by regents Charles Pruitt and Michael Spector].
Now that a Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a state law that would strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights, it?s worth stepping back to place these events in larger historical context. Republicans in Wisconsin are seeking to reverse civic traditions that for more than a century have been among the most celebrated achievements not just of their state, but of their own party as well.
(This column first appeared in The New York Times)
We disagree with some of Walker?s approaches. And even though we agree that spending cuts are needed, we also believe he and the Republicans in the Legislature should be more open to modest tax increases.
But here?s something that no one in the state should disagree with: It?s time to stop playing make-believe with the state budget.
There have been a number of recent opinion articles in support of giving the University of Wisconsin-Madison more freedom to run its own affairs and allowing it to become more independent of the state.
Former Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy is something of a political ghost, a memory of a particular style of legislative representation, full of demagoguery and deception, that has since seen few equals. Two UW-Madison history professors, in recent columns, resurrect the ghost ? although they disagree on how closely Gov. Scott Walker?s politics compare to Wisconsin?s most notorious of politicians.
Opposing Gov. Scott Walker?s budget is one thing.Walking 43 miles across three counties to deliver that message to the Capitol steps is something different.
A plan to grant UW System schools more autonomy while retaining UW-Madison as the system?s flagship university has the backing of the chancellors at UW-Stout, UW-Eau Claire and 11 other public universities in the state.
Faculty from a University of Wisconsin System campus are making a protest trek to Madison, protesting cuts to the UW System. Associate professor James Hartwick, one of the walkers, notes faculty will face a seven to ten percent pay cut under Governor Scott Walker?s budget repair bill. ?Maybe that doesn?t sound so bad, but faculty already make between 11 and 21 percent less than they would make at a comparable institution out of state,? said Hartwick. UW Whitewater faculty are not unionized.
Writing in opposition to the separation of UW-Madison from the UW System, David Ahrens makes some good points. For instance, he explains, if the Madison campus is no longer a part of the UW System, fewer legislators will be interested in promoting its strength, instead steering money to the campuses in their districts.
After all the smoke clears from the budget battles, we may find that, other than Gov. Scott Walker?s astounding move to crush public sector unions, no proposal will have as profound an effect on the future of the state as Walker?s takeover of the UW-Madison.
Thirteen University of Wisconsin chancellors asked state lawmakers Wednesday to support a new plan that would give all their schools more autonomy but wouldn?t spin off UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System.
Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison know their school can hold its own as a first-class public research institution rivaled by only a few dozen universities across the world. But our state?s current budget debates forecast spending cuts that could slash into the core of what makes the campus great.
UW-Madison, please don?t go. That?s the gist of a letter to state legislators Wednesday, signed by all of the chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System ? except UW-Madison?s Chancellor Biddy Martin.
UW-Madison is embarking on an external study to look for areas where the university could function more cheaply, effectively and efficiently. There are no cost estimates yet for the contract that university leaders signed with Huron Consulting Group earlier this month. Instead, the company will bill the university on an hourly basis, giving the university flexibility on how much it wants to spend, said Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison signed off on a deal earlier this month which asks the Huron Consulting Group to study if the university is running as efficiently and effectively as possible. There is no estimate for how much this project might cost the university at this time, said Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison?s vice chancellor for administration. However, university administrators told faculty leaders in September that such an endeavor could cost upwards of $3 million. Taxpayer dollars will not be used to pay for the project, said Bazzell.
UW-Madison, we don?t want you to go. That?s the gist of a letter today to state legislators, signed by all the other chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System, except UW-Madison?s Chancellor Biddy Martin.
If there was any doubt remaining, it?s now gone: Biddy and Bucky are going it alone.
In an opinion piece sent to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents President Chuck Pruitt and Vice President Michael Spector said chancellors at 12 of the system?s four-year campuses, plus the head of the UW Colleges and Extension, are backing a proposal the regents announced March 10 called the Wisconsin Idea Partnership. This plan would give campuses long-sought freedoms from state oversight but would keep all of the institutions under the umbrella of the UW System.
This is the time of year when almost everyone is a sports fan. It?s hard to miss the NCAA tournament, and who would want to? It provides some of the best entertainment around. And it was hard not to come to work Monday morning without a bit of a glow after the way Wisconsin?s teams performed.
In the world of vague, anonymous Internet threats, few profiles are written. Here?s one of the rare exceptions: Dan Riehl, a writer for BigGovernment.com, says he tracked down Jim Shankman, the Madisonian who penned a threatening ultimatum for UW-Madison law professor and nationally-followed conservative blogger Ann Althouse. Big Government is a national conservative website that has covered the Wisconsin protests and was apparently worried about those threats to Althouse.
Announced to the world earlier today, a new collection of New Badger Partnership student supporters has launched a website to promote the NBP and counter the lies and deceit being spread by the TAA, and radical leftists with no real plans and hallucinations of Utopian paradises.
Thirteen University of Wisconsin System chancellors have endorsed a plan that would give the state?s public universities more autonomy but would not formally split the state?s flagship campus from the oversight board that runs the rest of the campuses.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed an appeal Monday to lift the temporary restraining order a Dane County judge placed on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget repair bill.
Wisconsin?s attorney general filed an appeal Monday against a Dane County judge?s ruling that effectively halted publication of the governor?s collective bargaining law.
The union for teaching and project assistants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Sunday voted against a proposal from Gov. Scott Walker to separate Madison from the UW system, but members did not vote to authorize a strike, the group announced Monday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Teaching Assistants? Association voted Sunday to pass a motion opposing the university being granted public authority status and breaking away from the UW System.
The motion reads: “The TAA opposes the New Badger Partnership, especially the separation of UW-Madison from the UW System, the formation of the public authority model, and the threat to affordability and accessibility it poses to public education and the lack of protection for labor unions on campus. The TAA also objects to the non-transparent and undemocratic process by which the New Badger Partnership was designed.”
….I am certain that to make any major change in the status of the UW-Madison that brings the university under the governance of a board on which the majority of members is appointed by the current governor is irresponsible, and that if Chancellor Biddy Martin believes that Gov. Walker?s influence through such a board will be benign, she has drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid.
On the face of it, the budget proposal that Ohio Governor John Kasich released this week looks like terrible news for state universities. Not only would Kasich?s plan slash higher education spending by 10.5 percent but it also would cap tuition increases at 3.5 percent a year.
Members of the Teaching Assistants? Association graded papers, looked over exams and passed around pizza boxes on the floor of the Bascom Hall rotunda at a protest Monday against cuts in state education funding.
The University of Wisconsin Law School will have to do more with less under Gov. Scott Walker?s state budget proposal. His 2011-13 budget includes a $250 million cut in state aid to the University of Wisconsin System that includes the state?s only public law school.
Much of the attention given to Gov. Scott Walker?s budget initiatives has been directed at the implications to K-12 education. That is understandable given the intensity that teacher?s unions have directed toward limitations on collective bargaining and cuts in state aid to schools.
The Teaching Assistants? Association announced Monday it opposes Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership and the proposal to separate the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus from the UW System.
Now that a Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a state law that would strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights, it?s worth stepping back to place these events in larger historical context.
UW System leaders praised the Legislative Building Commission after it passed Gov. Scott Walker?s capital budget proposal, which included a new UW-Madison School of Nursing building.
The State Building Commission approved the governor?s capital budget recommendations las Wednesday, which detail public building construction and maintenance funding to generate economic activity and jobs.
In a move to provide all University of Wisconsin System campuses with new flexibilities to help combat extensive cuts in state funding, the Board of Regents endorsed a proposal that would retain the Madison campus as a member of the system in a meeting March 10.
After four weeks of unprecedented legislative maneuvers, protesters sleeping inside and outside the Capitol building and thousands of donated pizza slices from around the world, the bill that would limit collective bargaining rights for public employees was signed by the governor March 11, causing protests to gain momentum.
A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the state?s new collective bargaining law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill.
I fully support the new nursing school on the UW-Madison campus. But I am surprised that Gov. Scott Walker has so much state money to throw around.
Though it was removed from the budget repair bill, Gov. Scott Walker?s plan to privatize Wisconsin?s state-owned power plants remains alive. The controversial plan was the focus of another dustup this week when the State Building Commission approved spending $9 million for upkeep and improvements at the plants prior to their sale ? a move slammed by Democrats. The proposal as it appeared in the budget repair bill called for selling all 37 power plants, including the Charter Street Heating and Cooling Plant on the UW-Madison campus, to private operators with no bids and with no review by the Public Service Commission.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political scientist.
Quoted: UW-Madison Police Chief Susan Riseling.
Quoted: Steven Deller, a UW-Madison professor of applied economics who studied the ripple effects of Walker?s budget-repair bill and two-year budget proposal.
Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at UW-Madison, and Dhavan Shah, a UW-Madison professor who runs the Mass Communication Research Center.
University of Wisconsin administrators are reminding employees not to use their state e-mail accounts and computers for political purposes. A flurry of e-mails last week by UW Colleges and Extension faculty caused university relations director Teri Venker to remind employees to do their political organizing on their own time.
Quoted: James Dennis, an emeritus professor of art history at UW-Madison, who has written the book, “Robert Koehler?s ?The Strike?: The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest,
We now have a pretty good idea of what at least one judge thinks of the way Republicans handled the budget-repair bill last week: They probably handled it poorly, according to Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi.
Quoted: Dennis Dresang, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of political science and public affairs.
