Commentary on the creation of a separate governing board for the UW-Madison while UW-Madison remains within the UW System Administration

May 20th, 2011

[The following article was provided to legislators this week by Dr. Harry Peterson.  It is reproduced here with his permission.  - Ed.]

I understand that there is no significant legislative support to break away the UW-Madison from the UW System and provide the UW-Madison its own governing board.  I have been told that a “compromise” approach would provide a governing board for the UW-Madison and have that university remain in the UW System.

I do not know with whom such a “compromise” would be struck, but, this idea fails badly and is seriously flawed.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 7 Comments »

The drama to come.

May 18th, 2011

Act One of what appears to be a very long drama will soon be over. It began with the presentation of a Rorschach-like document, New Badger Partnership Plan, to which audience members, somewhat magically, were able to project whatever values, aspirations and ambitions- including pay increases- that they desired. Later, a new more ominous character, the Public Authority, entered the scene, played by the Governor with (or without depending on who is recounting the story) the collaboration of the Chancellor. This character had an inherent element of villainy and was less well-liked by many observers. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in State-University Relations, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

More on the “sorrows of academic corporatization.”

May 13th, 2011

The latest issue of The Nation brings us the following article

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education

In addition to the other issues raised, many of which have been well-covered, I find the following excerpt interesting:

As Gaye Tuchman explains in Wannabe U (2009), a case study in the sorrows of academic corporatization, deans, provosts and presidents are no longer professors who cycle through administrative duties and then return to teaching and research. Instead, they have become a separate stratum of managerial careerists, jumping from job to job and organization to organization like any other executive: isolated from the faculty and its values, loyal to an ethos of short-term expansion, and trading in the business blather of measurability, revenue streams, mission statements and the like. They do not have the long-term health of their institutions at heart. They want to pump up the stock price (i.e., U.S. News and World Report ranking) and move on to the next fat post.

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

When pro-business ideologues run universities. Case study: Texas

May 13th, 2011

As noted in a recent post, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch asserts that Public Authority would bring “a free-market approach to the university system similar to that of a corporate business.”

Ideologically, Huebsch is (by his own admission) joined at the hip with Scott Walker, so we can safely take this as an authoritative statement of what the governor’s office really wants for UW-Madison.

The Public Authority may be legislatively dead (or at least on ice), but we would do well to keep Scott Walker’s ultimate objectives in mind as we contemplate any “gifts” offered to UW-Madison and/or the UW System by the GOP-controlled state government.

And we would do especially well to study the example of Texas, where the struggle for ideological control of two university systems is coming to a head, as described in an exceptionally disturbing report by the Chronicle of Higher Education Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

Free market universities and global trade treaties: Unintended consequences?

May 11th, 2011

The General Agreement on Trades and Services (GATS) is considered among the crown achievements of the Uruguay Round of the negotiations and talks of the World Trade Organization, entered into force in January 1995. I am not expert in international trade, but to my understanding, GATS aims to bring the benefits of globalization to the service sector of our economy. For a quick overview, see http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/gatsqa_e.htm Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Nailed to its perch

May 11th, 2011

Please, I beg you, stop talking about public authority as if it were still viable. It’s DEAD, really truly dead. And people are finally saying as much in print. Paul Fanlund, for instance, writes in today’s CapTimes:

Martin adamantly rejects that her version [= public authority]  is doomed. “It is not my impression that legislative support is minimal,” she wrote in answer to that assertion. “I believe legislators are continuing to consider the issues and debate different possibilities,” claiming “significant momentum over the past weeks.”

Well, I’ve been looking for legislators who support Martin’s plan as written. I’m still looking.

He concludes that it’s “time to punt”. That’s gently put.

Are we going to see the Chancellor searching her Bascom office (maybe in the next Zooniversity video?) like Bush did in the Oval Office for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? No, I know what it reminds me of … Monty Python‘s dead parrot routine. I wish to register a complaint about public authority. This plan is dead. It’s stone dead. Definitely deceased. It’s passed on. It is no more. It’s expired and gone on to meet its maker.

Can we get on to the real work now, like trying to save the extra $30 million base budget cut we’re taking under this scheme?

Posted in State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, Uncategorized | 26 Comments »

Huebsch: NPB “would bring a free-market approach to the university”

May 10th, 2011

Just when we’re fretting about the apparent dismantling of academic freedom and shared governance at Florida State and other universities as these institutions openly sell their curricula to wealthy corporate donors,  Sara Goldrick-Rab over at Education Optimists tips us off to recent comments by Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch.

Here’s the key passage:

… Mike Huebsch says he and Gov. Scott Walker remain hopeful that the guv’s proposed split of UW-Madison from the rest of the university system will pass.

Speaking in Brookfield Wednesday at a gathering of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, he told the group it would bring a free-market approach to the university system similar to that of a corporate business. [emphasis added]

I now have two burning questions for Chancellor Biddy Martin, for our Faculty Senate,  and for other prominent and enthusiastic supporters of the public authority plan:

  1. Do you have any plausible basis whatsoever for doubting Huebsch’s characterization of the public authority plan as regards the actual intentions of those who inserted it into the budget bill?
  2. Do you support this vision for UW-Madison?

If you answer “no” to both questions, then the most obvious interpretation is that your endorsement of Scott Walker’s public authority plan reflected a grave lapse in judgment and due diligence on your part.

I look forward to hearing the arguments for a more generous interpretation.

-GP

 

Posted in Academic freedom, Instruction, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

Breaking news: “Koch University” already exists. Are we next?

May 9th, 2011

Cynics here in Badgerland have been cracking jokes for months that UW-Madison could become “Koch University” if and when some of Governor Walker’s policies take effect, including (some allege) the public authority status that is part of his budget bill.

But who knew that the first branch campus of Koch University already opened in Tallahassee, Florida, way back in 2008?  Only now, in May 10th’s St. Petersburg Times, is the arrangement finally getting wider attention: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Academic freedom, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 14 Comments »

Will flexibility to retain star faculty create downward salary pressure for everyone else?

May 9th, 2011

Some of the recent statements for support for NBP come from stars among our faculty. It is no secret that the major reason to seek more flexibility is to meet the challenges in keeping the stars from moving to greener pastures. The competitive compensation plans to stay in the market for stars puts an upward pressure on the salaries of stars, while simultaneously exerting a downward pressure on the salaries of others, particularly exacerbated when you bring in equity considerations.

Let us not forget that while excellence and scholarship among our stars is beyond question, there is large segment among us who are silently sifting and winnowing for truth outside the limelight, working on unpopular ideas. It is the freedom to pursue such efforts that our tenure is supposed to guarantee. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Compensation, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

State Journal guest editorial: NBP arguments “vague”, “elitist”.

May 8th, 2011

Daniel Bush, an alumnus of both UW-Madison and UW-Oshkosh, has written a guest editorial for today’s issue of the Wisconsin State Journal:

Vague argument, elitist attitude hurt UW-Madison autonomy plan

It seems unlikely that Mr. Bush reads Sifting and Winnowing, yet he concisely and  eloquently raises many of the same concerns about both the goals of the NBP, and the process by which it is being sold, that have been voiced by a variety of  contributors to this page  and elsewhere (e.g., Education Optimists) over the past few weeks.

In his closing remarks, he appropriately takes NBP advocates/salespersons/lobbyists to task for both their politically tone-deaf elitism and their failure to promote a healthier and more balanced discussion of UW-Madison’s options: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Shared governance, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The UW-Madison Campus | 21 Comments »

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