OPINION & EDITORIAL
A mixed review for the Regents
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- A security fee-for-all (December 11, 2007)
- Farewell, Chancellor (December 10, 2007)
- $$FC (December 6, 2007)
- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
- Entitlement Town (December 4, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Still waiting (March 13, 2002)
- Politics and placation (January 31, 2002)
- Bad timing, bad politics (February 5, 2002)
- Regent accountability bill needed for students (September 25, 2003)
- Stakes are high for Wisconsin as regents plan for UW budget squeeze (August 30, 2002)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Last week, the Board of Regents voted to overturn executive salary increases after intense criticism from legislators. This could have a detrimental effect on the future quality of the UW System by decreasing the quality of its leadership. While we regret the fact that the Regents folded to the entirely hypocritical criticism of many lawmakers, we welcome continued discussion on the subject in a free and open forum.
As we have mentioned time and time again, 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’ initial decision to increase these ranges was taken with the specific, positive, warranted intent of retaining the excellent leadership our system of higher education deserves. To that end, we encourage the Regents to reconsider the measure, which it has placed in the Business and Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, we ask Gov. Jim Doyle and other legislators to come down from their Ivory Tower and get behind the Regents’ initial decision. This is the group that cut the UW System by the largest amount in its history, and now that group blames the Regents for trying to deal with the consequences. Their remarks, insofar as they criticized the decision itself, add insult to injury.
But while we back the Regents’ initial decision, we regret the way in which the Regents made the decision. The initial ruling was over a conference call with barely enough Regents present to establish the necessary quorum. It was also done by voice vote, meaning no student citizen knows for sure who voted for or against the decision to change the pay scales. This is why we now applaud the Board for agreeing to better notify the public and media when planning to deal with salary issues. It is also encouraging to see that the Board will now require its members to vote on salary issues in regularly scheduled meetings through a roll-call vote with a majority of the Regents present.
In spite of these self-imposed rules, we continue to endorse Kitty Rhoades’ (R – Hudson) proposal to require all Regent votes to be recorded as roll-call votes. Salary increases alone do not represent the entire gamit of issues affecting students throughout the UW System. All votes, including those that involve tuition increases, reallocations of economic resources with the System and hiring or firing decisions have a direct impact on students, and, in turn, this state’s economic future. This recent fiasco demonstrates the importance of their decisions, but we are not so nearsighted as to believe that accountability can be solved by their own self-imposed rules. Roll-call votes for salary increases are not enough. The constituents directly affected by the decisions made by the Board of Regents do not have the ability to vote in new Regents or stage a recall. At the very least, students deserve the truth about all votes. This bill will give us just that.
We approach the Regents’ recent decision with trepidation. They have folded to largely hypocritical political pressure while making an incomplete effort to create an open forum on their decisions. We ask them to continue the fight to retain our system’s competitiveness, and we call on legislators to pass laws encouraging transparency.
