Posted 3:44 p.m. Monday, July 6, 2015
It’s not clear yet how a $50 million reduction to the proposed $300 million UW System budget cut will impact UW-La Crosse, says Chancellor Joe Gow.
[caption id="attachment_4849" align="alignright" width="300"]
UWL Chancellor Joe Gow[/caption]
It’s not clear yet how a $50 million reduction to the proposed $300 million UW System budget cut will impact UW-La Crosse, says Chancellor Joe Gow.
The state’s Joint Finance Committee voted in late May to reduce UW System’s cut to $250 million over the 2015-17 biennium. The committee also voted to place new limits on UW-L faculty, staff and student involvement in campus decision making and to eliminate tenure from state statute. The final budget has yet to go to the governor for his signature.
Kaylee Otterbacher[/caption]
UW-L Student Association President Kaylee Otterbacher said she was pleased to see the reduction to the cut, but she was concerned about motions of the Joint Finance Committee that limit the role of UW students, faculty and staff in decision making on campuses. Among other concerns, she worries students will no longer have an influential voice in decisions made about student fees.
Under the Joint Finance Committee’s proposal, shared governance would remain in state statute, but the language specifies that students, faculty and staff would serve an advisory role to the chancellor and their advice would be “subordinate to” chancellors and the UW System Board of Regents and president.
Lines were deleted from state statute specifying that staff and students would be “active participants in the immediate governance of and policy development for” each institution. In the case of faculty, the line was deleted specifying that “faculty of each institution be vested with responsibility for the immediate governance of such institution and actively participate in institutional policy development.”
Gow said even with proposed changes to state law, UW-L’s shared governance will not change.
“I’m proud that in my eight plus years here we’ve had some great shared governance,” he says. “I think it’s important that we all have a voice so that we all own the decisions we make and can be enthusiastic about them.”
In other parts of the country, tenure and shared governance are typically not part of state law. Rather, they are policies of the Regents or universities, says Gow.
Removing tenure from state statute and limiting faculty’s role in shared governance are moves in the wrong direction, says Aaron Monte, professor and chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“[Tenure and shared governance] are points of pride. Many of us came to Wisconsin because we thought this was one of the best systems of higher education in the world,” says Monte. “That system keeps being eroded.”
The tenure process is rigorous and faculty earn it, says Monte. Ultimately, it protects free speech in the classroom and allows faculty to pursue research interests and develop knowledge that moves humanity forward without fear of retaliation from political or religious groups.
In a prepared statement, UW System President Ray Cross said the leadership of the UW System and Board of Regents is committed to upholding the tenants of shared governance and tenure whether they are part of state statute or board policy.
“We appreciate that the action proposed today by the Joint Finance Committee keeps shared governance language in state statute, and we are reviewing other proposed changes related to shared governance. As tenure was not retained in statute, we will move to incorporate it into Board policies immediately,” said Cross in part of the statement Friday, May 29.
It’s important that both shared governance and tenure are not weakened, says Gow. Among other benefits, they allow UW-L to remain competitive in attracting faculty and staff.
Otterbacher, who is at a student government conference with other student body presidents in Washington D.C., says students from other schools are envious of the relationship Wisconsin students have with university leaders through shared governance. Otterbacher meets with Chancellor Gow once every two weeks compared to some student presidents she’s spoken to who have no relationship with their university’s leader.
“If students do not have a right to shared governance, I worry that relationship will deteriorate,” she says.
Otterbacher said she’s not concerned about UW-L students under Chancellor Gow’s leadership as he has been open and communicative, and he values involving students in decision making. She is concerned about other UW campuses that don’t have the same relationship with their chancellor and future UW-L chancellors who may not understand or care about shared governance.
Otterbacher says she and other UW-L students spent anywhere from 25-30 hours at the state capitol talking with the System president, lawmakers and the governor’s office about the impact of the cuts and statutory changes. One of the main messages was the importance of preserving shared governance.
“I’m very disappointed that this is the way this turned out,” says Otterbacher. “I think this demonstrates how our state views the role of students in decision-making processes, and its seems quite clear that the students’ role isn’t necessarily regarded as important.”
The committee also rejected converting the UW System to a public authority — a move Gov. Scott Walker proposed to give UW campuses more autonomy from the state with decisions such as setting tuition. They did, however, offer some new flexibilities such as granting institutions the power to manage their own building project if it is funded entirely by gifts and grants. Gow said the new flexibilities are areas where UW-L could potentially save money in the future.
UWL Chancellor Joe Gow[/caption]
It’s not clear yet how a $50 million reduction to the proposed $300 million UW System budget cut will impact UW-La Crosse, says Chancellor Joe Gow.
The state’s Joint Finance Committee voted in late May to reduce UW System’s cut to $250 million over the 2015-17 biennium. The committee also voted to place new limits on UW-L faculty, staff and student involvement in campus decision making and to eliminate tenure from state statute. The final budget has yet to go to the governor for his signature.
A little smaller cut
The university’s joint planning and budget committee will meet in the future to discuss how UW-L’s budget plans will be modified based on UW-L’s portion of the cut. Previous budget reduction plans included primarily eliminating 55 positions, mostly vacant; increasing enrollment by 50 students and cutting supply and expense budgets by an average of seven percent. “Because we are such a lean organization — we’ve been cutting our budget the last 10 years — we really do need every job we have,” says Gow. “Obviously losing 55 positions is going to do real harm to the university, so I would encourage our group to look at saving some of those jobs.”Limits to shared governance, tenure
[caption id="attachment_4850" align="alignleft" width="156"] Kaylee Otterbacher[/caption]
UW-L Student Association President Kaylee Otterbacher said she was pleased to see the reduction to the cut, but she was concerned about motions of the Joint Finance Committee that limit the role of UW students, faculty and staff in decision making on campuses. Among other concerns, she worries students will no longer have an influential voice in decisions made about student fees.
Under the Joint Finance Committee’s proposal, shared governance would remain in state statute, but the language specifies that students, faculty and staff would serve an advisory role to the chancellor and their advice would be “subordinate to” chancellors and the UW System Board of Regents and president.
Lines were deleted from state statute specifying that staff and students would be “active participants in the immediate governance of and policy development for” each institution. In the case of faculty, the line was deleted specifying that “faculty of each institution be vested with responsibility for the immediate governance of such institution and actively participate in institutional policy development.”
Gow said even with proposed changes to state law, UW-L’s shared governance will not change.
“I’m proud that in my eight plus years here we’ve had some great shared governance,” he says. “I think it’s important that we all have a voice so that we all own the decisions we make and can be enthusiastic about them.”
In other parts of the country, tenure and shared governance are typically not part of state law. Rather, they are policies of the Regents or universities, says Gow.
Removing tenure from state statute and limiting faculty’s role in shared governance are moves in the wrong direction, says Aaron Monte, professor and chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“[Tenure and shared governance] are points of pride. Many of us came to Wisconsin because we thought this was one of the best systems of higher education in the world,” says Monte. “That system keeps being eroded.”
The tenure process is rigorous and faculty earn it, says Monte. Ultimately, it protects free speech in the classroom and allows faculty to pursue research interests and develop knowledge that moves humanity forward without fear of retaliation from political or religious groups.
In a prepared statement, UW System President Ray Cross said the leadership of the UW System and Board of Regents is committed to upholding the tenants of shared governance and tenure whether they are part of state statute or board policy.
“We appreciate that the action proposed today by the Joint Finance Committee keeps shared governance language in state statute, and we are reviewing other proposed changes related to shared governance. As tenure was not retained in statute, we will move to incorporate it into Board policies immediately,” said Cross in part of the statement Friday, May 29.
It’s important that both shared governance and tenure are not weakened, says Gow. Among other benefits, they allow UW-L to remain competitive in attracting faculty and staff.
Otterbacher, who is at a student government conference with other student body presidents in Washington D.C., says students from other schools are envious of the relationship Wisconsin students have with university leaders through shared governance. Otterbacher meets with Chancellor Gow once every two weeks compared to some student presidents she’s spoken to who have no relationship with their university’s leader.
“If students do not have a right to shared governance, I worry that relationship will deteriorate,” she says.
Otterbacher said she’s not concerned about UW-L students under Chancellor Gow’s leadership as he has been open and communicative, and he values involving students in decision making. She is concerned about other UW campuses that don’t have the same relationship with their chancellor and future UW-L chancellors who may not understand or care about shared governance.
Otterbacher says she and other UW-L students spent anywhere from 25-30 hours at the state capitol talking with the System president, lawmakers and the governor’s office about the impact of the cuts and statutory changes. One of the main messages was the importance of preserving shared governance.
“I’m very disappointed that this is the way this turned out,” says Otterbacher. “I think this demonstrates how our state views the role of students in decision-making processes, and its seems quite clear that the students’ role isn’t necessarily regarded as important.”
The committee also rejected converting the UW System to a public authority — a move Gov. Scott Walker proposed to give UW campuses more autonomy from the state with decisions such as setting tuition. They did, however, offer some new flexibilities such as granting institutions the power to manage their own building project if it is funded entirely by gifts and grants. Gow said the new flexibilities are areas where UW-L could potentially save money in the future.