David Walsh, president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, announced this week the formation of a new ad hoc committee to investigate means to accelerate the UW System's employee dismissal process.
The committee, which will be chaired by Regent Michael Spector, comes in the wake of intense criticism from state legislators and national media alike after UW took what some felt was far too long to dismiss three convicted felons from its payroll.
"The idea that we should be paying people [who] are unable to work because they're involved in the criminal system is just wrong," Walsh said. "What we need to do is assure the public that in egregious situations we will deal with [employees] immediately and there won't be any unnecessary obstacles."
Walsh announced his six appointees when testifying to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee Tuesday. Spector, a former chairman of the governor's task force on K-12 education, will be joined by Regents Peggy Rosenzweig and Brent Smith, General Counsel Patricia Brady, UW-Platteville Chancellor David Markee and UW-Madison law professor Walter Dickey.
"This committee is going to come up with their recommendations on what statutes are to be changed and then come to the Legislature to ask us help them to get that changed," Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, said.
Jeskewitz, who also serves as co-chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, said she would likely support changing current laws based on the recommendations of Walsh's committee.
Walsh acknowledged both in his testimony and in a later interview he is asking the committee to work on a tight timeline, as he expects the full board to consider recommendations from the committee at their December meeting. The committee's first meeting is scheduled for Nov. 3 in Madison.
"We're going to do this quickly but carefully," Spector said. "I would anticipate that I will ask Pat Brady, the General Counsel, to do some background work with what the [current] law is on these respective issues and then we can begin addressing if changes should be made."
Despite his speedy ambitions, Walsh stressed the regents will continue to respect due process laws and will not make rash recommendations.
"We're not rushing to judgment here. The standard we aren't going to depart from is the standard of providing due process to all employees and their job security will be honored," he said. "We just want to make sure that the process moves more quickly."
Walsh said the committee will not change laws just for the sake of making changes, but cited a few instances in which he thinks statutory amendments might be appropriate.
"One of the problems is that the law is so vague as to what 'just cause' is and we need to see if we can define it better," he said.
Additionally, Walsh said the committee would investigate whether employees should be paid during the appeals process, and whether they should initiate certain "per se violations," in which certain convictions for example would result in immediate dismissal.
"I'm looking forward to it and it's a challenge because we want to do the best thing for the university but you also have to recognize [due process rights]," Regent Brent Smith, a committee member, said. "It's one of the many things that we're trying to deal with regarding the employment situation and employment practices."
