Nearly 500 sign letter demanding that Ray Cross oppose Scott Walker's plan to restructure UW

The Chippewa Herald ^ | March 2, 2015 | PAT SCHNEIDER

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Five days after an open letter was posted online, the number of people at University of Wisconsin -- now including not only faculty, but staff, students and alumi -- demanding that UW System president Ray Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker's plan to restructure UW in his budget rose to 484. Some 88 of them were at, or graduated from UW-Madison, where faculty were scheduled Monday to vote on a resolution asking Cross to delay restructuring.

Seventy-four University of Wisconsin faculty members from campuses across the state signed an open letter to UW System president Ray Cross, “insisting in the strongest possible terms” that Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to restructure the university as a public authority.

The letter is attached to an op-ed piece by Richard Grusin, director of the Center for 21st Century Studies and professor of English at UW-Milwaukee, published Wednesday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It responds to a guest essay by Cross praising Walker’s proposal, which he says align with the reforms he himself put into place since taking his job last year.

The faculty members demand that Cross call for an immediate moratorium on a move to a public authority until the next two-year budget round in 2017, “pending a thorough study and widespread public input into the transition and structure of such an authority.”

They also urge Cross to oppose $300 million in budget cuts the university is being asked to absorb in exchange for the public authority.

Two dozen of the signers are from UW-Madison, where Chancellor Rebecca Blank has repeatedly said that no trade-off was offered. Walker was going after $300 million in cuts over the two-year budget, whether or not the university got the long-sought autonomy that a public authority would bring, Blank has said.

Grusin has previously blogged against a public authority, which he says would put control of such vital aspects of academic freedom as tenure and shared governance entirely in the hands of the political appointees to the Board of Regents.

Members of the influential University Committee at UWM – the executive committee of the Faculty Senate – have accused Cross, Blank and Walker of “backroom dealings.” They have criticized Ray for “paternalistic governance” that side-stepped faculty, staff and students, who currently hold powers of shared governance that would be wiped out in Walker’s proposal.

No members of the University Committee of the Faculty Senate at UW-Madison have signed the open letter. But they are offering for action at the Senate meeting Monday a resolution — more mildly worded than the open letter – calling for delay on the public authority until after an analysis of the “viability and implications” of the public authority model. Another resolution supports the adoption of shared governance as it now exists in state law as a policy of the Board of Regents if a public authority model is implemented.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The university system feels threatened. It's about time.

Two campuses - the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - do not keep centralized records of individual instructor teaching loads similar to all other schools in the system, according to open records requests filed by the MacIver News Service.

In February, MNS obtained a document called the "Instructional Teaching Load Template" for 11 of the 13 UW System 4 year institutions through publicly available sources. This spreadsheet contains information for the 2014 school year including the names of all instructors, the number of credits each one taught, the classes they taught, the number of students in each class, and a break down of their position's funding source.

MNS filed open records requests with UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee to obtain similar records from those institutions. At the end of the month, however, both schools responded that they are unable to fulfill the requests. - "Two campuses - the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - do not keep centralized records of individual instructor teaching loads similar to all other schools in the system, according to open records requests filed by the MacIver News Service.

In February, MNS obtained a document called the "Instructional Teaching Load Template" for 11 of the 13 UW System 4 year institutions through publicly available sources. This spreadsheet contains information for the 2014 school year including the names of all instructors, the number of credits each one taught, the classes they taught, the number of students in each class, and a break down of their position's funding source.

MNS filed open records requests with UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee to obtain similar records from those institutions. At the end of the month, however, both schools responded that they are unable to fulfill the requests.".......

[Gaffer]

Here in my state, the university system is governed by a Board of Regents - serving in that position largely at the pleasure of the state governor.

Walker needs to think about restructuring his system like this if it isn’t already the case. Universities do not exist for the convenience of academics. They are supposed to provide a service. If they can’t do that, then they should be reformed or replaced with those who will.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

March 3, 2015: UW Slush Fund more than Quadruples in Last Decade

More than 80 Percent of the UW System Surplus is Unrestricted

[Madison, Wisc...] The University of Wisconsin System may face harsh questioning from legislators following the release of a report by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), which shows the university system's reserves grew at a very fast pace over the past decade.

Members of the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) will be given that chance at the UW System's budget briefing on Tuesday morning. Every state agency testifies in front of JFC at the beginning of the budget process to explain their requests.

The UW System is expected to brief JFC at a hearing on Tuesday beginning at 9am.

While it is expected that UW officials will fight back against a $150 million cut in each year of the budget, a review of LAB's report and Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) documents shows the UW System still maintains rather large Program Revenue (PR) balances.

During the budget debate two years ago, members of the CPA Caucus discovered the UW System had a balance of more than $1 billion. That so-called "slush fund" was made up of PR balances.

Two years later, the UW System's PR balance has grown from $1.05 billion to $1.19 billion. However, UW officials have claimed large portions of the balance are now earmarked for specific projects, so they claim it is technically not surplus.

In the last 10 years, it has grown significantly. The UW System PR balance has increased from $268.2 million to $1.19 billion - more than four times the size it was in 2004-05.

The UW slush fund has also grown at a much faster rate than the system's budget. In 2004-05, the PR balance was the equivalent of 6.9 percent of the UW System's overall budget of $3.88 billion. In 2013-14 the PR balance was equal to 19.8 percent of the system's $6 billion budget.

However, it grew even more when matched up to the UW System's general program operations (GPO) budget. When compared to UW's GPO budget, the PR balance grew from 16.3 percent in 2004-05 to 54.1 percent in 2013-14.

Even with the sudden increase in PR balances - many of which were supposed to be spent down after the discovery of the slush fund in 2013 - UW officials continue to say the much of the funds are restricted.".......

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It would be good to know the extent of the relationships between elected Democrats in WI and the UW system.

Walker: Budget will assist small businesses and farmers [Dems sit and pout]

[dan on the right]

In state tuition is about $10,500; out of state $26,500. In state - about right for in-state tuition for a state school (especially for such a good school); out of state tuition is very cheap compared with similar state schools (by at least $10,000 a year).

Now I know why so many from my state (not Wisconsin) try to go there. Real bargain.

Stop complaining! End tenure. Costs will drop and quality of teaching will soar.

[mosesdapoet]

Our previous governor Jim Doyle took 3$B of the transportation fund created from gasoline taxes and used to maintain infastructure and diverted that to cover WEAC Wisconsin Education (teacher’s union) and other state pension programs. During the Walker recall election a petition for a constitutuional amendment to prevent such diversions passed and came into effect last year.

That’s never brought up now and don’t know why it isn’t. Because it should.

Needless to say our roads weren’t maintained and infastructure was left crumbling .It also left the state scurrying for funds from every nook and cranny to fix the roads and bridges.

[olezip]

Five days after an open letter was posted online, the number of people at University of Wisconsin -- now including not only faculty, but staff, students and alumi -- demanding that UW System president Ray Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker's plan to restructure UW in his budget rose to 484. Some 88 of them were at, or graduated from UW-Madison, where faculty were scheduled Monday to vote on a resolution asking Cross to delay restructuring.

Looks like a feeding frenzy of a bunch of people who want to bite the hand that feeds them! They do not like the idea of "adult supervision," long overdue.

I certainly understand the chronic need for more money, lower tuition, and more autonomy by the recipients of public monies. Walker must be onto something good and something big!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for adding that information!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

bttt!