University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin said Monday she will continue to work with the state’s largest business group, three months after her predecessor condemned the organization’s policies.
Martin said she has met with the board of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, as well as the board’s president.
Former Chancellor John Wiley, who retired from his position in August, wrote an article published in the September issue of Madison Magazine that characterized members of the right-leaning WMC as “political extremists.”
Martin said she sees the relationship between WMC and UW as important to the university’s future.
“There will almost always be differences about how to go about pursuing the goals we share,” Martin said. “But I think it’s really important for us to be able to say what the shared goals are, and they are the welfare of the state of Wisconsin and certainly of industry.”
WMC spokesperson Jim Pugh said Monday the meetings between Martin and his organization have gone “very well.”
“It’s a critical part of the Wisconsin tradition to educate the citizens of our state, and hopefully we can have a strong enough economy they can go to jobs right here in Wisconsin,” Pugh said.
WMC has used its influence in the past to elect conservative judges to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The organization is anti-tax and anti-regulation, and Wiley said the members were not interested in creating high-paying jobs at UW.
Wiley added WMC is “the single biggest obstacle to the recovery of Wisconsin’s economy.”
Martin told Wiley at the time that the article could put her in a bad situation.
“I’m afraid it would produce awkwardness for you, for me, and for the university to have it appear at that very moment,” she told Wiley in an e-mail.
Wiley responded, “I don’t see any scenario in which anything could or would splatter you. You can plead ignorance of the history and express a willingness to work with WMC.”
Pugh would not comment on Wiley’s article and suggested people move past it to help keep educated Wisconsinites in the state after college.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
