The Withering of a Once-Great State University by #Wisconsin Republicans and Scott Walker

[riversedge]

@WisIdea:The Withering of a Once-Great State University by #Wisconsin Republicans and Scott Walker https://shar.es/1svdQA #wipolitics #p2








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July 13, 2015
The Withering of a Once-Great State University

By David J. Vanness

Among the dozens of policy changes embedded in the budget signed on Sunday by Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin were measures to strike the definition of tenure appointments; insert detailed termination procedures for tenured faculty members in the event of unspecified "budget or program decisions"; subordinate the faculty to chancellors and the largely governor-appointed Board of Regents; and strip from faculty members their "primary responsibility" for academic and educational activities and personnel matters.

Those radical provisions fundamentally change the structure and spirit of the University of Wisconsin system, and their impact will be far-reaching — with some changes being felt immediately and others taking years if not decades to play out.

When Walker introduced his budget, in February, he caught flak for redefining the system’s mission statement, making "training the workforce" ascendant and eliminating the "search for truth" as the institution’s guiding principle. Walker was rightfully accused of seeking to eliminate the "Wisconsin Idea" —.While Walker eventually retracted the proposed changes in the mission statement, blaming a simple "drafting error" (a statement later proved false), the impact of his budget may ultimately be the death of the Wisconsin Idea — perhaps the culmination of a plan set in motion decades before by his largest financial backers, the Bradley Foundation, whose chief executive, Michael W. Grebe, was named Walker’s campaign chair. Notably, Grebe’s son Michael M. Grebe was named to the UW Board of Regents this summer.

As regent, Michael M. Grebe has publicly commented that the UW system should be run like a business, eliminating duplicative degree programs (as companies might eliminate duplicative manufacturing locations) and empowering chancellors to function more like corporate CEOs. When pushing those changes through the State Legislature, the Assembly speaker, Robin Vos, echoed those goals. For those of us who believe a university should be run like a university for the benefit of all, and not as a publicly funded R&D unit or job-training center for the benefit of private industry, the changes are hard to take................

[Still In Wisconsin]

1. I work at the UW and people ARE already starting to leave over this.

It was a great run, UW. Last one out, please turn off the lights.

[WIProgressive88]

2. It is going to take decades to undo all of the damage that these people have done...

[Scuba]

3. K&R

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Very extreme position

I am not aware this has been done in other deep red states, so UW may be the ALEC trial ground for national rollout.

[Still In Wisconsin]

5. I think it's clear we are the ALEC/ Americans for Prosperity trial ground for a LOT of odious things

So much fun being the Koch brothers' Petri dish.

[CatholicEdHead]

6. That is scary in itself

How this is the new model for the future for Universities, how other states' ideas similar to the Wisconsin idea they tried to remove are on long term chopping blocks. It is really a neo feudalism, everything for a few, nothing for the rest, like many banana republics.

[Still In Wisconsin]

7. Yup, there are three kinds of people in Walker's world:

(1) "Job Creators" def: Walker's campaign donors and other rich people. See: David and Charles Koch, Shel Adelson

(2) "Hard Working Taxpayers" def: Walker's voters, most of whom vote against their own best interest
and

(3) Big Government Special Interests see: school teachers, university professors, union members, firefighters, ...