Category: Top Stories

Ray Cross pledged Wednesday to resign as president of the University of Wisconsin System if he fails to secure a substantial reduction in proposed state budget cuts and is unable to protect tenure, shared governance and academic freedom for UW campuses.

Cross, facing withering criticism, told a UW-Milwaukee gathering of employees and students that he’d resign if he can’t substantially reduce the $300 million cut and preserve cherished employee protections including shared governance, tenure and academic freedom. He stood by his answer later, saying in an interview that “I don’t believe any higher education leader wants to be any part of an institution that doesn’t have tenure or shared governance.”

For UW System President Ray Cross, March will be filled not only with basketball, but visits to various state colleges and universities for conversations about Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed state budget.

Two key Wisconsin lawmakers are proposing changes to Governor Scott Walker’s plans for the University of Wisconsin System. Joint Finance Committee co-chair, Representative John Nygren R-Marinette and committee member Representative Dean Knudson R-Hudson announced plans on Wednesday that include a smaller, more manageable cut, instead of the $300 million cut proposed in the governor’s budget.

The Republican co-chair of the Legislature’s budget committee says he’s working on a plan to remove the proposed public authority from Gov. Scott Walker’s University of Wisconsin budget.

The co-chair and another Republican member of the Legislature’s powerful budget committee panel said Wednesday that they don’t support giving the University of Wisconsin more independence from state oversight, in another sign of dwindling support for Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to do just that.

Other Republicans — and some Democrats — joined Joint Finance Committee co-chair Rep. John Nygren in saying that Walker’s plan is in serious jeopardy as faculty, staff and students at UW-Madison, for example, are opposing the reorganization of the UW System as a public authority.

The Republican co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee says Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to detach the University of Wisconsin System from state oversight appears to be on life support.

University of Wisconsin alumni love their university. But their affection leads them to very different conclusions on Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to slash state funding and award the university greater autonomy to carve out savings in operating costs.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’d like to see a smaller cut to the University of Wisconsin System’s budget and less autonomy for the system.

Chancellors at the University of Wisconsin’s Eau Claire and Whitewater campuses are making cost-cutting plans to deal with a proposed $300 million reduction in state funding for the UW System, even though the Legislature has yet to consider the cuts included in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.

In a move that could portend cost-cutting in higher education statewide, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt announced Thursday that voluntary separation incentives will be offered to about 325 eligible faculty and staff — including faculty with tenure.

The head of the Assembly said Thursday that he was backing off support for giving the University of Wisconsin System more autonomy because university leaders don’t appear willing to make dramatic changes in areas such as tenure and shared governance.

“If you don’t believe anything needs changing, then why are we giving you an authority,” said Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, the Assembly Speaker. “I don’t understand the System’s rationale to say, ‘Give us all this authority to do things differently and to save money,’ but then they basically said, ‘We’re not going to do anything differently.’”

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to shift control of the University of Wisconsin System away from the state and onto a public authority controlled by the Board of Regents met turbulence Thursday, with a top Republican lawmaker saying he’s now skeptical and a national faculty association calling it “a radical assault” on the statewide system.

ssembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’d like to see a smaller cut to the University of Wisconsin System’s budget and less autonomy for the system.

Faculty members from across the University of Wisconsin’s campuses are clamoring to halt plans for the schools to sever ties with the state and become more autonomous, even as administrators are urging lawmakers and the system’s governing board to move forward, saying the shift will help the 26-campus system operate more efficiently.

A new resolution asking state Legislature to reduce the proposed $300 million biennial budget cuts and provide the UW System with greater flexibility over operations, passed unanimously at the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting Thursday.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents says it’s dedicated to protecting shared governance and tenure if state lawmakers eliminate them in the budget process.

The funding cuts are too deep. The flexibility is welcome, but the public authority model needs much more study. Shared governance and tenure must be preserved.

Regents and chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System vowed Thursday to push back against Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts to higher education.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is proposing to cut $300-million from the state’s university system over the next two years. Across the Great Lakes, his fellow Republican governors in Michigan and Ohio are pushing for increases in their states’ higher-education spending. (Subscription required.)