The nation’s current economic crisis has caused the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to postpone a proposal that could have increased the salaries of four chancellors.
Board of Regents Vice President Chuck Pruitt said the decision to postpone the salary increases was necessary due to timing issues and potential financial restraints across the state.
“We felt strongly that at this particular time of economic crisis that this just wasn’t the right moment for us to be considering this action,” Pruitt said. “I just feel that we don’t know enough right now to make a decision.”
According to Pruitt, the board postponed the decision in an effort to respect the uncertainty felt by Wisconsin residents and the nation as a whole.
Student Regent Colleene Thomas said the decision to postpone the pay raises was the responsible choice.
“I think it was absolutely the right decision in light of the instability within the U.S. economic system,” Thomas added.
Regents head on the road
The Board of Regents will be holding their monthly meeting today and Friday at UW-Stevens Point.
Thomas said hosting the meeting at a satellite campus is exciting because the regents will see progresses made throughout the system.
The meetings will address key issues affecting the UW System with a focus on accountability. Among the agenda items is a discussion over the recent adoption of a system called College Portraits at all UW System four-year universities.
College Portraits is a database that presents standardized information about different universities, said UW System spokesperson David Giroux. Through the system, data pertaining to student feedback, academic performance and proportion of graduated students is condensed and compared among institutions nationwide.
“[College Portraits] is part of an ongoing effort to make sure parents, students, taxpayers and others have all of the information they need to make informed choices,” Giroux said.
Pruitt said because College Portraits is a new system, the board meetings would serve as a progress report concerning the UW system’s success in accountability.
“I think that we’re one of the national leaders in terms of looking at all of our individual campuses and seeing how they’re measuring up on objective standards,” Pruitt said.
The meetings will also concentrate on amending UW System policies. Giroux said he anticipates the regents will put clearer guidelines and more explicit procedures for chancellor screenings into place.
Through policy amendments, “we want to ensure that we have the best leaders to guide our campus in the future,” Giroux said.
Another major agenda item is a review of UW System’s student misconduct guidelines.
According to Pruitt, updating the student misconduct policies has been a yearlong discussion process.
“I think the group that was working on it has worked very hard and has come up with a series of recommendations,” Pruitt said. “It’s part of an ongoing conversation about an issue of importance to students and the campus as a whole.”
Pruitt said after the meetings, the recommendations would ultimately go to the Legislature for official review before being finalized.
