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Board to replace member after claims of controlled agenda

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board is looking to replace a faculty representative who resigned more than a month ago and says the board was being controlled by the Athletic Department’s agenda.

UW history professor Jeremi Suri sent a letter of resignation to Chancellor Biddy Martin in the middle of September stating “the Athletic Board is only promoting the agenda of a small group of stakeholders and actively undermining the values of our institution.”

Suri said he resigned after realizing the “ad hoc self-study” the board commissioned to investigate its relationship with the department seemed to lead the board in the direction of having less oversight than they currently exercise.

“It’s a checks and balances system,” Suri said in an interview. “It’s the role of the board to stand up and exercise its rights and obligations.”

The board deliberated over the findings of the self-study committee at its monthly meeting Friday and will do so again at its next meeting Dec. 5 before the recommendations are sent to the University Committee and the chancellor’s office for consideration.

At the last Faculty Senate meeting in early October, Martin said she would not take any individual action to look into the board’s activities until she received the finalized version of the self-study. She added she did not want to interfere with the process.

Suri’s letter contained allegations of discrimination and harassment within the board used to keep board members in line, saying “personal attacks have become the norm on this committee.”

Athletic Board Chairman Walter Dickey said he was not aware of any allegations of harassment before Suri’s letter was made public. He refused to respond directly to Suri’s allegations early last week but added the self-study addresses the issue of civility between board members.

Suri’s replacement on the board will be appointed by the University Committee with the advisement of the chancellor, Dickey said Friday. He added he expects to know who that new member will be at the next meeting but had no further comment on the subject.

At the meeting, the board also discussed the possibility of a new program or center on campus that would integrate athletics with academics.

Although the board would not be directly involved in implementing the program, Dickey said it could be involved in uniting a group of faculty to discuss this possibility and present it to the various schools on campus.

Classes offered by the suggested program could look at sports from both a professional level through sports management and an academic level through research in subjects such as sports psychology, Dickey said.

Associated Students of Madison student representative Logan Hulick, who aided Dickey in research on the demand for this program, said students and faculty are asking for more classes that would fuse academics and sports.

“The demand is there,” Hulick said. “The demand to teach and to learn and be more involved with academics, with athletics.”

Hulick said there are a lot of job opportunities in fields like sports law, sports journalism and sports management which students may want to pursue. He said UW should consider a program like this in order to continue competing with other Big Ten universities, many of which already offer those opportunities to their students.

The board also discussed a mandatory summer school program for incoming freshmen on the men’s basketball team, but Dickey said he would be surprised if the program went into effect in 2009.