[media-credit name=’SUNDEEP MALLADI/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]A special Board of Regents committee met yesterday to further discussions regarding the controversial disciplinary process slated for revision.

The six-member committee, formed by Regent President David Walsh last fall, agreed on tentative dismissal procedures which have since been sent to faculty groups across the state for review.

With as many as nine campuses having already submitted reports of concerns to the Board, the regents acknowledged further discussion of the proposed disciplinary process is in line.

"The good news is that everyone wants to address this problem," Walsh said. "And the good news to me was that [faculty groups] sought a solution rather than stonewall it."

Committee discussions originally developed in response to three cases from last fall, in which three UW faculty members convicted of serious felonies remained on the payroll.

Comparative literature professor Lewis Keith Cohen, convicted of child enticement and sentenced to 30 days in jail with eight years probation, was dismissed from his tenured position April 7.

Assistant medical school professor Steven Clark submitted resignation, which was accepted by the Board April 7 and will take effect Aug. 15. He was convicted of stalking and sentenced to a one-year term, which is due to be up in June.

The third high-profile faculty felon, Roberto Coronado — also from the medical school — is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for child molestation and was dismissed from the university in February.

After a firestorm over what some charged was too lengthy a dismissal process, a special regents committee began examining the current policy, and a proposed revision is currently up for debate.

The committee gathered input already received from the governance groups and summarized the main points to more easily facilitate discussion.

"There's quite a similarity of concern in certain areas of this proposal that we've been working on," UW System general counsel Pat Brady said, citing concerns over the connection between conduct and public trust, when suspension without pay is appropriate and how "criminal misconduct" will be defined.

UW professor and committee member Walter Dickey also noted that some suggestions made to the Board suggest misunderstanding of portions of the draft, but added that some faculty groups seem to have substantive concerns with the proposal.

Mark Evenson, president elect of The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals, discussed one such alternate proposal.

"It's not simply a question of not understanding certain wording," he said. "The faculty senates around the state in large part have simply disagreed with both the intent and the provisions [of the drafted proposal]."

Evenson added that if the committee wants to be "serious" about the faculty input, they must find some new set of rules that can be a part of the process.

This counter-proposal was drafted by TAUWP, the Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights, and United Faculty and Academic Staff. According to Evenson, the draft has already been adopted by UW-Superior and has been submitted to the Board for consideration.

These and other concerns will be part of the committee's continued conversation regarding possible policy changes.

While expressing satisfaction with the amount of input already received, Regent Peggy Rosenzweig also noted the importance of allowing for additional contribution.

"I just don't want us to get to the end of the day and people feel that they weren't given the fair notice of the procedures," she said.

The committee set May 5 as the submission deadline for faculty input, and the next committee meeting is slated for May 16.