OPINION & EDITORIAL
New bill will undermine UW System
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by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Tuesday, October 7, 2003
A new bill to go before a State Assembly committee today has the potential of weakening the integrity of the UW System and lessening the quality of secondary education throughout Wisconsin.
Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) has introduced legislation that would maintain UW Regent authority to propose salary ranges and adjustments for UW System senior executive positions, but would require Joint Finance Committee approval before they are effective. The bill, AB 532, was referenced to the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee, where it will have a hearing today. Local Assembly Representatives Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Spencer Black (D-Madison) sit on this committee. We call on them and their Assembly colleagues to reject this legislation.
This bill was clearly introduced with the intent of stripping power away from the Board of Regents in light of their recent decision to increase the pay ranges for top executives within the UW System.
But the Regents’ decision should be kept in context.
It was made over a conference call with barely enough regents present to establish the necessary quorum. It was also done by voice vote, meaning that no student citizen knows for sure who voted for or against the decision to change the pay scales. But that problem cannot be solved by Suder’s legislation — stripping power away is different from exposing the processes behind that power. For that reason, we have endorsed legislation proposed by Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson) to require recorded votes of Regent decisions.
But more importantly, comparative analyses have established that pay within the UW System is relatively low compared to that of other university systems. The UW System recently lost chancellors at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Stevens Point to higher-paying out-of-state positions. The Regents’ decision to increase these ranges was taken with the specific and positive intent of retaining the excellent leadership our system of higher education deserves.
Let us repeat this point to all those legislators rushing to judgment by supporting this bill: the Regents, by raising the pay ranges, were doing their job. They, unlike the Legislature, are held directly responsible for maintaining a high-quality system throughout Wisconsin.
By requiring the blessing of the legislature’s most highly politicized, contentious and powerful committee, the Joint Finance Committee, this bill will only prolong the Regents’ most important decisions. There is a reason such integral choices are made apart from the Legislature: education should be managed by those people who know something about education, not politicians with votes to gain by what is temporarily popular.
The Regents had a tough choice to make by raising the pay ranges. It was not politically popular, especially in a time of widespread budget cuts and tuition hikes. However, the loss of key personnel to other institutions is a threat that they could not ignore.
The Regents took the steps necessary to maintain a high-quality secondary education system in Wisconsin. We call on our local legislators as well as all Assembly representatives to reject legislation specifically designed to take away this power.
