For decades, University of Wisconsin faculty have operated under a simple guarantee. They are state employees, but they own and control the products of their work, including syllabi, assignments and other course materials.
This understanding, however, could be upended. The UW System is proposing a new copyright policy that professors say would eliminate faculty ownership of instructional materials. The revisions are stoking alarm among professors statewide who say such a move would cheapen higher education into a mass-produced commodity.