Opinion

Bad timing, bad politics

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As part of last summer’s biennial budget, the Wisconsin Legislature gave the UW System Board of Regents complete control over determining salary ranges and adjustments for upper-level staff. Previously, any salary changes had to be approved by the joint committee on employment relations.

Following the new act the Board of Regents decided to give 35 UW System administrators pay raises — the most noticeable being UW System President Katharine Lyall?s 43 percent pay raise to $299,000 a year. The regents argued the raise was necessary to bring her salary up to par with other university system presidents, such as those at the University of California and the University of North Carolina.

While the regent’s point is valid — and one we would normally second — the pay raises come at the wrong time. The state’s $1.1 billion budget shortfall is well documented, as is the proposed $50.5 million cut in UW System funding. In light of these cuts, the regents should delay these raises. It may be appropriate to revisit the issue when the cut in state funding is restored.

An even more important reason for the regents to hold off on these pay raises is a political one. Today the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities is holding a hearing on Assembly Bill 709, which, if passed, would reinstate legislative control of salaries.

As the first part of this editorial should have made obvious, we understand the Assembly’s concerns. But reinstating legislative control is not the answer. Pay raises are always dicey politically, and the result is the relatively low salary levels currently found in the administration.

The Board of Regents requires political autonomy if quality is to remain the number one priority of the UW System. We encourage the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities to reject this bill and urge the Board of Regents to put off these cuts for the time being and in the process retain their ability to grant them in the future.