The University of Wisconsin System released one-page summaries (below) of how each campus, along with UW Colleges and Extension, is managing its share of the historic $250 million state budget cut.
System leaders had originally planned for each campus chancellor to present a five-minute summary of budget cuts to the Board of Regents last week, but that plan was scrapped because UW System President Ray Cross was concerned about the length and tone of the presentations.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is meeting today and tomorrow, April 7 and 8, at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Livestream coverage of the full board meetings is here.
The regents meet in committee Thursday morning:
Loading...
The Research, Economic Development, and Innovation Committee will hear several reports including updates on the Talent Development Initiative and the WEDC Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program.
The Audit Committee will hear several reports. They will also meet later Thursday in a joint committee meeting with the Business and Finance Committee where they will discuss two reports — an independent auditor’s report on financial statements and other reporting required by government auditing standards and the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau report on the University of Wisconsin System.
Loading...
The full board meets Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. The board is expected to approve committee action, including possible changes to UW-Madison tenure policies, Friday. The board will also hear from student representatives on diversity issues.
Tenure and Shared Governance
The Board of Regents met last month and approved three policies related to tenure, post-tenure review, and faculty layoffs. The meeting was contentious at times as the board rejected three faculty-supported amendments offered by Regent Tony Evers.
The language approved by the board was broad and intends to serve as an umbrella policy for individual campuses. The Regent Education Committee will consider UW-Madison’s faculty layoff policy (below), approved by the Faculty Senate in November, at its meeting in Green Bay later this week.
Loading...
Wisconsin Legislature
Republican legislative leaders have said the legislature has concluded its regular 2015-16 session. The legislature is unlikely to meet again this spring, but could reconvene in special or extraordinary sessions later this year. PROFS monitored and lobbied on the following bills this session:
Assembly Bill 305/Senate Bill 260, Limits on Scientific Research—Passed committee, never brought to the floor
PROFS registered against AB 305 and SB 260, proposals that would make it illegal to provide or use for experimentation fetal body parts.
Assembly Bill 480/Senate Bill 363, Campus Concealed Carry—In Committee
PROFS registered against AB SB 363, legislation that would have require UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System campuses to allow concealed carry of weapons in campus buildings. Current law permits concealed carry on campus grounds, but allows individual campuses to forbid weapons in buildings.
Assembly Bill 485/Senate Bill 365, Bans Guns on College Campuses—In Committee
PROFS registered in favor of this bill, which would ban guns on college campuses.
Assembly Bill 814, Shared Governance—In Committee
PROFS registered in favor of this bill, which would have returned university, shared governance to state statutes.
Assembly Bill 898, Tenure—In Committee
PROFS registered in favor of this bill, which would have restored strong tenure language to state statutes.
College Affordability Package—Four bills signed into law
Governor Walker signed four of six bills into law last month. A PROFS statement on the bills is here.
Senate Bill 276, Parking Revenue
Governor Walker signed this bill into law. It allows the university to spend parking revenue on campus safety and transportation programs. PROFS registered in favor of this proposal.
Senate Bill 571, Sale of Agricultural Lands
Governor Walker signed this bill into law. It expands UW System Board of Regent authority over agricultural lands. PROFS registered in favor of this proposal.
Documents from the Thursday, March 10 UW System Board of Regents meeting.
Tenure
Loading...
Post-tenure Review
Loading...
Layoffs
Loading...
Amendments
Loading...
UW System Tenure Policy Task Force
PROFS continues to actively follow the work of the UW System Tenure Policy Task Force. The Board of Regents meets Thursday, March 10 and will discuss recommendations of the Regent Education Committee. Board action on UW-Madison’s draft policy is not expected until April.
Wisconsin Legislature
Republican leadership has said the Assembly has adjourned for the session, but the Senate plans to meet again March 15. Both houses could reconvene in special or extraordinary sessions. PROFS is monitoring and lobbying on several items:
PROFS Forum on Self-insurance for State Employees
The Group Insurance Board met last month and voted to issue a request for proposals on self-insurance for state employees. PROFS hosted a forum featuring three insurance experts the following week. Video here.
Alice Dreger
PROFS is pleased to cosponsor a public discussion with Alice Dreger, a former clinical professor at Northwestern University.
Dreger, author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, will talk about academic freedom and how it relates to research. She will also share ways in which researchers can work individually and together to protect themselves.
She will speak at noon, Friday, March 4 in the Wisconsin Idea Room in the Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall.
This is event is hosted by the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE) and cosponsored by the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, the Department of History of Science, and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab.
Reload document 
Open in new tab