I’ve been thinking of this book in light of all that has
transpired at CSU with its political-ward style governance, our nadir under Wayne
Watson and his “team,” the bovine board of trustees under Anthony
Young and Nikki Zollar that exacerbated the crisis we are in with the state. Will we be here in September? Maybe.
What about 2017?
What about 2017?
For the past
two decades at various low points in our CSU history I have been told to trust in the idea (maintained as a fact by the believers) that “they
would never close down CSU because the Black Caucus/Black politicians/Chicago
Black voters/Governor/Democratic Legislature/Emil Jones would never let that happen…” In other words, CSU could
do whatever outrageous anti-academic thing, shady hiring or ethics thing it wanted; it was always going to be
protected by the pols.
Well, here we are with a Governor who is out for blood. Rauner
does not want to close CSU because of its corruption and mismanagement--we are simply
his soft target. Rauner wants to undo the university system in Illinois, mostly
he wants to break the unions in the State of Illinois system. His model is
Scott Walker’s Wisconsin. And have you heard what’s happening up there? A new
tenure policy that will essentially make tenure meaningless. See the article
posted below.
Today our CSU UPI President Bob Bionaz wrote on
the Save CSU facebook account:
Get downtown at 4:30 this afternoon for the rally at Federal Plaza.
Yeah, eat dinner late tonight, pass up your favorite TV shows, do your grading
tomorrow, record the Blackhawks game and watch it later; for once, don't have
anything better to do. We have 7 weeks left before our school runs out of
money. Do this for Chicago State, our great students, the people of Chicago,
and the people of Illinois.
"Nonsense!
Nonsense!" snorted Tasbrough a CSU PROFESSOR, "That couldn't
happen here in America ILLINOIS, not possibly! We're a country UNIVERSITY
of freemen SCHOLARS EDU-CA-TORS."
Regents approve
new policies for UW tenure over professors' objections
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents
approved new policies for faculty tenure and performance reviews on Thursday
over the objections of professors who said the new rules will make it easier
for administrators to deal with budget cuts by laying them off.
The nearly unanimous vote to adopt the policies brought
to a close a major piece of the lengthy and controversial process of rewriting
tenure rules that started last summer, when lawmakers stripped the protections
from state law and widely expanded administrators’ power to fire faculty in the
2015-17 budget.
Under the new rules, UW officials will have the authority
to discontinue academic programs and lay off tenured faculty for educational or
financial reasons — such as if administrators decide other “higher priority”
programs need funding. Professors could also face discipline, including firing,
if they are found to be falling short of expectations under a new policy for
post-tenure review.
With new statewide rules in place, the Regents’ next step
is to approve more specific tenure policies for each UW System campus. The
board is expected to act in April on a policy from UW-Madison that would give
professors stronger protections; System president Ray Cross indicated the
Regents could make changes to the proposal.
UW officials insist the new policies will preserve
academic freedom and free speech, striking the right balance between protecting
tenured faculty and giving chancellors the “flexibility they need to get
through tough times,” according to Regent John Behling.
Previously, faculty could only be fired for just cause,
or in the event of a campus-wide financial emergency.
Regent President Regina Millner said the policies “will
be a critical new tool for our chancellors, to help them better align their
resources with the needs of the state without jeopardizing academic freedom or
putting us at a competitive disadvantage.”
Professors were far from satisfied with the new rules,
however. The Regents voted down several policy amendments, supported by
faculty, that would have given professors stronger protections from losing
their jobs and more power in determining when layoffs could occur.
UW-Madison professor Dorothy Farrar-Edwards said she was
“bitterly disappointed” by the new policy. Julie Schmid, executive director of
the Association of American University Professors, said it could set a
precedent for weakening tenure protections across the country.
“The Board of Regents today voted to diminish tenure and
academic freedom in the UW System, and with it to diminish the reputation of
the system, and to undermine the Wisconsin Idea,” Schmid said.
Regent Jose Vasquez, who opposed the policies, questioned
why changes to tenure — which have drawn national attention to Wisconsin, and
according to UW-Madison officials made it harder for the campus to recruit and
retain top faculty — were necessary in the first place.
“I’ve never been convinced that we had a broken system,”
Vasquez said.
The financial challenges on UW campuses are the result of
large state budget cuts to higher education funding, Vasquez said, and
weakening tenure rules and laying off faculty will not solve the system’s
problems.
“It wasn’t tenure that caused the fiscal crisis,” Vasquez
said. “The fiscal crisis that we have has been imposed on us.”
Different
philosophies on display
Discussion of the new policies at times laid bare major
differences in how the Regents — many of whom are appointees of Republican Gov.
Scott Walker — believe the UW System should be managed.
Some saw decisions to close programs and dismiss faculty
as analogous to companies in the private sector deciding to shift investment
from one less-profitable product to another that is selling well.
“The needs of
Wisconsin change,” Regent Jose Delgado said. “We need resources in order to be
able to invest in the needs.”
After state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony
Evers, who is also a Regent, proposed creating a faculty committee that would
weigh in on program closures, other Regents said no business would go through
such a lengthy process.
“Welcome to the 21st century,” said Regent Margaret
Farrow.
Vasquez and others pushed back against the idea of
managing the UW System like a business, saying the job of a university “is
different from making widgets.”
Many of the professors at the meeting agreed, saying UW
institutions do more than simply grant degrees and produce graduates.
“We are not running cash registers and (students) are not
buying Pop Tarts,” UW-Eau Claire professor Geoffrey Peterson said. “What we do
is far more complicated than that.”
Campus policies next
step
Cross said the new policies were written broadly, to
allow for each of the system’s campuses to write rules that are tailored to
their institution’s needs.
“What works precisely at Madison will be different than
what works precisely at Superior,” Cross said.
But campus policies will still have to be in line with
the statewide rules passed Thursday, Cross said. The policy approved by faculty
at UW-Madison, which offers stronger protections to professors, will likely
face some “critical” changes to keep it compatible with the statewide rules, he
said, such as noting more clearly that the campus’ chancellor has the final
authority to decide on layoffs.
Noel Radomski, executive director of the Wisconsin Center
for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, said UW-Madison’s policy could
serve as a framework for rules at other campuses.
But, he noted, having each campus write tenure policies
could lead to a future in which the rules vary by campus, and professors at
UW-Madison enjoy greater protection than those at other schools.
Layoffs could come
at struggling campuses
It remains to be seen whether and how UW System
chancellors will use the authority the new policies gave them.
Radomski said it’s likely that chancellors at
cash-strapped UW campuses — particularly those at regional campuses where
declining enrollment has compounded the effect of state budget cuts — could
look to close departments and dismiss faculty members.
“The new uncertainty, and the new concern, is going to
be: Are the enrollment and the fiscal problems going to trigger program
discontinuation, and therefore trigger faculty layoffs?” Radomski said.
If chancellors make layoffs under the policy, Schmid
said, the AAUP could investigate and censure their campus.
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