Some state workers are not buying Gov. Scott Walker?s recent efforts to honor state workers and, in response, held a noon event outside the Capitol Thursday they?re calling “State Employee Depreciation Day.” A news release notes the event is being sponsored by the “Ad Hoc Committee for State Employee Depreciation.”
“What good do faculty unions do?” That?s the headline from a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, which notes: “Many union leaders have declared the right to collectively bargain essential if faculty members are to be paid adequately, treated fairly, and given a voice in their institutions? affairs.”
But, the article continues, “the research that tests such assertions offers mixed findings. At most private colleges, as well as at public colleges where faculty members have chosen not to form unions or have been precluded from doing so by state law, many faculty members work without union contracts without feeling particularly exploited.”
While state Republicans hope to resolve the controversy over the budget repair bill in the courts, they are prepared to insert parts of the bill into the state?s budget if no ruling comes by the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
On Tuesday I finally had a chance to take in some of the new Union South in person and it is, as I?ve been reading for weeks now, quite lovely. The design is sleek and modern without feeling sterile. There are multiple food options encompassing a decent range of health and diet options. Students were seated everywhere, working on laptops or noses buried in books.
No big surprise here given the state?s hard turn right …. but the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee has eliminated $5 million in bicycle funding from the 2011-2013 state budget. Siding with Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal, the Republican-dominated panel voted 12-4 Wednesday to remove state support for bicycle and pedestrian paths from the $6.4 billion transportation budget.
There may be nothing more entertaining in state politics this week than the contrast between the obliviously upbeat YouTube video Gov. Scott Walker made to solicit nominations for his new state employee recognition program and the decidedly downbeat comments posted in response.
As public rhetoric surrounding the New Badger Partnership continues to dominate conversations on campus, Chancellor Biddy Martin and other University of Wisconsin officials offered the campus community another chance to voice their concerns with the new model.
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the UW System would be good for cranberry growers, an industry leader told three local lawmakers Tuesday.
Freshwaters are Wisconsin?s crown jewel. Lakes and rivers of our forests and farmlands provide natural beauty, fisheries, water sports and other benefits. Bordered by two Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, and with thousands of inland lakes and streams, Wisconsin is truly a place where land, people and water meet.
I was hesitant to write this article. It?s on a complex, dense issue ? which means I?m going to be berated for whatever I say. But over the past year and a half I?ve been writing for The Badger Herald, it?s been the insightful comments (many of which have disagreed with me) that have meant the most. I?m writing about the New Badger Partnership this week, and I?ll start off by saying that I?m incredibly ambivalent about the proposal, which makes it both a wonderful topic to write about and an incredibly intimidating one.
ROCK COUNTY, Wis. — University of Wisconsin officials spoke about keeping the UW System together in Rock County on Wednesday.
….We?re already seeing some of our most dedicated and experienced teachers leaving their jobs, fearful that their employers either can?t or won?t hold up their end of the bargain on pensions. Further, their governor has decided that in addition to giving up benefits, they shouldn?t even have the right to bargain on their working conditions or fair treatment on the job.
Not only are they going to have to give up what amounts to about 8 percent of their take-home pay, they?ve been vilified by state leaders, small-minded politicians and a host of petty complainers as being shiftless, selfish and pampered.
Downtown Madison Inc. has a keen interest in the current debate over the future of UW-Madison. The urban center of the city and the university at its heart have been intimately linked since the founding of Wisconsin. At a recent meeting, DMI?s board of directors expressed unanimous support for Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership.
Tempers flared during a panel debate Tuesday as multiple groups who have been outspoken opponents to the New Badger Partnership united to question the future of the University of Wisconsin System.
The Teaching Assistant Association and United Council invited Chancellor Biddy Martin and 10 other University of Wisconsin affiliates to debate the controversial New Badger Partnership with them Tuesday.
A proposal to divide UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin system is dividing university leaders, faculty, and students.
As unions that represent public-college professors have come under attack in state legislatures, the unions? leaders have fought back without being able to define what, exactly, they stand to lose if their right to collectively bargain goes away.
MADISON — A UW-Oshkosh professor received a letter of reprimand for urging students to consider signing a recall petition against Senator Randy Hopper during a class session. In a statement, Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) called for public affairs professor Stephen Richards? resignation.
A discussion Tuesday will look at the plan to make the university a public authority.
The panel, A Critical Look at the New Badger Partnership, is sponsored by the Teaching Assistants’ Association and United Council and will be held at 3 p.m. in Varsity Hall I of Union South. Update on Tuesday at 9:45 a.m.: The T.A.A. said UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin will not be attending this event because of a health issue. The university will reportedly send another representative in her proxy.
UW-Madison?s faculty senate voted Monday to support public authority status for the university, a controversial budget proposal that would split the flagship university from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System. In doing so, they answered a call from UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, who sought support for the plan from the campus, in the face of opposition from others in the UW System.
With the 2010-11 academic year winding to a close, UW-Madison?s faculty senate passed a resolution supporting Gov. Scott Walker?s controversial proposal to award Wisconsin?s flagship institution some long sought freedoms from state oversight by granting it public authority status and breaking it away from the UW System.
“I am very happy about the senate?s support of the public authority model,” UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin — who was unable to attend Monday evening?s meeting at Bascom Hall due to a “health problem” — said in an email to the Cap Times. “I appreciate the hard work of the University Committee and the serious deliberations of the faculty.”
Changes to the UW System. As we wrote last week in this space, we oppose splitting the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System. While we agree that changes are necessary to allow universities to be more flexible and more efficient, they should be applied to the entirety of the system — not just to Madison. This is better achieved through standalone legislation than through a provision in the budget bill.
I can?t believe the University of Wisconsin can consider the UW physicians at the recent demonstrations at the state Capitol frivolous or unprofessional. Never in my lifetime have I witnessed government treating people ? many who considered themselves professional, as UW graduates usually do ? so callously.
At least one Wisconsin farm organization says it?s backing the New Badger Partnership, which would make the University of Wisconsin-Madison autonomous from the rest of the UW-System.
Sara Goldrick-Rab does not shy away from controversy. Being direct, she says, is in her genes.
….The assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology is the most outspoken faculty critic of Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to award UW-Madison some long sought freedoms from state oversight by granting it public authority status and breaking it away from the rest of the UW System. sue that has divided many smart folks both on campus and across the state.
The Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association is behind the New Badger Partnership, which would make UW-Madison autonomous from the rest of the UW-System.
Students gathered in the hallway outside Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office in Bascom Hall Friday to urge the University of Wisconsin?s chief executive to plot an alternate course for the school?s future.
Mike Mikalsen and I don?t agree on much. Mikalsen, the research assistant and lead strategist for state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, has played a central role in Nass? work as the main thorn in the side of UW-Madison. So as I spoke with Mikalsen over the phone last week concerning the proposed New Badger Partnership, it was no surprise that I disagreed with much of what he said.
Critics of a plan to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison off from the rest of the UW System believe they are gaining traction as lawmakers express their doubts, but UW-Madisons chancellor says she remains confident.
With the controversial budget repair bill currently stuck in the court system, Republicans have been discussing ways to ensure Wisconsin municipalities still receive the tools Gov. Scott Walker said were contained in the bill which limited collective bargaining authority for public employees, including adding that provision to the biennial budget bill.
I decided to use the wedding as a sort of topical prop to help me draw a cartoon on a topic that I do care about, UW-Madison?s attempt to split off from the rest of the UW-System.
Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldn?t help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.
The head of the University of Wisconsin System says that splitting off the Madison campus from the rest of the statewide public college system would be costly and would damage the reputations of all campuses.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health completed its investigation Tuesday regarding UW doctors who wrote medical notes excusing protesters from work and school Feb. 19.
If the current proposed legislation designating UW-Madison as a public authority is adopted, I would anticipate the following changes over the next decade and beyond:
Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldnt help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.
The more than 40-year-old tuition agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin has turned into a good financial deal for Minnesota students, while Wisconsin officials are working to reduce the program?s cost. Wisconsin paid $12.9 million to the state of Minnesota and its colleges and universities for the 10,301 Wisconsin students who went west for the 2009-2010 school year, according to a report released Wednesday. That was the largest tab since at least 1975. The rising expense prompted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to ask the Legislature in March to change the reciprocity agreement to make Wisconsin students pay a greater share of their education in Minnesota. That would shrink the state?s obligation. The request is pending.
The Wisconsin Veterans? Affairs Board has asked legislators to make three major changes in the proposed state budget. It took issue with the governor?s plan to split UW Madison from the rest of the university system.
Many public university systems? flagship campuses, faced with state funding cuts, are hiking tuition, increasing the numbers of higher-paying nonresident students, ramping up fundraising — and confronting the very notion of what it means to be a public institution.
Welcome to the autonomy discussion Madison College. Thanks for advancing the conversation President Bettsey Barhorst. And welcome to the new world of higher education Wisconsin.
Barhorst thinks Madison College should have the same amount of autonomy from state budget and regulatory rules as Chancellor Biddy Martin is seeking for UW Madison. Of course she does. While on a smaller scale, the competitive world in which Madison College and most other colleges operate is similar. And it?s a different world that that of 10 years ago, and certainly 40 years ago.
Government employees are some of the last workers still covered by traditional pension plans, which guarantee retirees a payment until they die. But facing tight budgets and a new economic reality, many states — including Wisconsin — have looked at shifting workers into personal savings accounts like a 401(k).
UW-Madison students showed their displeasure over a proposed split of the main campus from the UW system by staging a sit-in in Bascom Hall Tuesday afternoon outside of Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office.
The chancellor met with about 100 students and staff for about 90 minutes at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, talking about the New Badger Partnership, a plan to give UW-Madison “public authority” status by splitting it from the other schools in the system.
A group of more than 60 students convinced Biddy Martin to come out of her Bascom Hall office Tuesday afternoon to chat about the state budget and future of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With five members of the UW Police Department looking on, the students and UW-Madison chancellor held a sometimes tense but mostly friendly conversation in a first-floor hallway.
What is being proposed as a “public authority” for the campus has no semblance to the public authority at UW Hospital…It has been 15 years since UW Hospital became an excellent model of a public authority, aggressively striving and meeting the goals of quality, competitive health care and labor peace. Let?s use the model.
Republican leaders of the Legislature?s budget-writing committee indicated Tuesday that they will break with Gov. Scott Walker on some parts of his two-year spending plan, including removing the requirement and money for local recycling efforts and changing the popular SeniorCare prescription drug program. They spoke before the Joint Finance Committee began taking votes on changes to Walker?s first budget. Committee co-chair Robin Vos (R-Racine) has said it was “highly unlikely” the committee will go along with Walker?s plan to break the Madison campus off from the UW System. That issue has divided both the Madison campus and the university system, with other campuses and UW President Kevin Reilly arguing against it. They, and some lawmakers, have argued that all 14 four-year campuses in the system should have the same autonomy that Walker is proposing for Madison. Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has argued strenuously for the plan, saying it was necessary for the flagship campus to deal with a $125 million cut Walker is proposing — half of the $250 million cut Walker wants for the entire university system.
Noted: Vos has also said it was “highly unlikely” the committee will go along with Walker?s plan to break the UW-Madison campus off from the UW System.
MADISON (WKOW)–Police at the University of Wisconsin were called to Bascom Hall on Tuesday evening after a group of protesters refused to leave the building.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison students and campus community members are engaging in a sit-in at Bascom Hall to protest the idea of splitting UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System.
I was disappointed last week to read in this newspaper?s “Labor?s last stand?” series that some UW-Madison students have been breaking up with their honeys over disagreements about what?s been happening at the Capitol.
Four Democrats on the state?s budget committee raised objections to proposed changes to Wisconsin?s tuition reciprocity program with Minnesota. The proposal won?t end the program, which allows Wisconsin and Minnesota students to pay in-state tuition at public universities in either state. But it means Wisconsin students would pay more to attend college in Minnesota. The changes would eliminate a subsidy – paid by the state of Wisconsin – which gives Wisconsin students a grant to cover higher in-state tuition in Minnesota. Gov. Scott Walker says the change would save Wisconsin taxpayers $12 million a year. About 10,300 students take part in the program.
On opposite ends of State Street, two student groups with radically different viewpoints will voice their opinions today about the proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System. At Bascom Hall at 1 p.m., students will protest the budget proposal to make UW-Madison into a public authority. The group, including members of the Student Labor Action Coalition, will hold a mock auction to signify what they say is a handover of the university to private special interests. Bascom Hall is where UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office is located. About a mile away, at the state Capitol, students in favor the proposal will lobby legislators, said Jon Alfuth, a coordinator of Students for the New Badger Partnership.
Call it budget envy, but the president of Madison Area Technical College wants a deal similar to UW-Madison?s treatment in the state budget ? more autonomy. Bettsey Barhorst said Monday that MATC needs more freedom from the state in order to run more cheaply and efficiently, especially in the face of a proposed 30 percent cut in state aid and a proposed freeze in property tax increases. Barhorst said state rules for building, program approvals and personnel certification mean piles of paperwork, a lengthy process and added expense for the college.
Four Democrats on the state?s budget committee raised objections to proposed changes to Wisconsin?s tuition reciprocity program with Minnesota. The proposal won?t end the program, which allows Wisconsin and Minnesota students to pay in-state tuition at public universities in either state. But it means Wisconsin students would pay more to attend college in Minnesota.
We?d never met. But when I walked into my class at American University a few weeks ago, I knew instantly who she was. She came up quickly, like someone who didn?t have much time. She was a grad student working at American University for the Service Employees International Union to organize adjunct professors like me. She hoped I would sign up. What surprised me was my reaction. I wished she hadn?t come.
(Bob Lehrman, a novelist, former White House aide and author of ?The Political Speechwriter?s Companion,? was American University?s adjunct of the year in 2010. This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Members of the Legislature?s budget-writing committee have signaled they?re approaching information overload when it comes to the proposed separation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System. Is there a way, key lawmakers have asked, to construct a phased plan for giving the university more freedom to run its own affairs?
Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System is a bad idea, and lawmakers should reject it.
It is frustrating, though perhaps understandable, that the terribly important discussion of the future of the UW System, especially the UW Madison, has gotten caught up in politics. There are those who are opposing Chancellor Biddy Martin?s New Badger Partnership for no other reason than Governor Walker supports it. That?s goofy.
Members of the Legislature?s budget-writing committee have signaled they?re approaching information overload when it comes to the proposed separation of the UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System. Is there a way, key lawmakers have asked, to construct a phased plan for giving the university more freedom to run its own affairs?
Right now the UW-Madison is operating on an uneven field that, if not corrected, will slowly erode our great university?s ability to compete – for students, faculty and research dollars, just to name a few – not only nationally, but around the world as well. We all know how economically challenging these past few years have been for our country. Those challenges exist on college campuses as well, including UW-Madison. I always taught my players to meet challenges head-on and that?s what is necessary now. Chancellor Biddy Martin has a plan that would give UW-Madison some of the decision-making flexibility necessary for our university to continue to compete on a national and international level.
Chancellor Biddy Martin had finished her by-now-familiar sales pitch that the University of Wisconsin-Madison can only succeed by splitting from the UW System. On this day, her audience was Downtown Rotary, the city?s high court of business movers and shakers.
….How, if things proceed as they seem likely to, does she emerge unscarred? At Rotary, it became obvious she is acutely aware of what critics are saying. Her persona has morphed from careful to carefully combative.
I often write about progressive interests in and around Madison responding to right-wing attacks. What we have here feels like an enormous family feud, albeit nuanced, arcane and hugely important. It feels oddly timed, on the heels of everything and, well, kind of sad.
