Members of the University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate weighed a new approach to funding for the university under the public authority model and approved a resolution in support of academic freedom during a meeting Monday.
Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell said while current levels of state funding in some areas would continue under the new model proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s biennial budget, UW should focus on generating flexible public funding in the future.
Bazzell said certain administrative and personnel benefits would continue to be provided by state funding, though the university was asked to cut their budget for internal operations. He said members of the campus community must also consider how to most effectively ensure future revenue for the university.
After concerns were raised that the cost of state budget cuts would be passed on to students in the form of tuition increases, Chancellor Biddy Martin said the public authority status would not raise tuition any more than would be necessary under the current model.
“We have an opportunity we’ve never had before to change our business model,” she said. “It’s the greatest opportunity that could exist because it’s in the governor’s budget [but] there has to be support on campus.”
Bazzell added the projected 8.5 percent tuition increase for next year is relatively modest in comparison to UW’s peers in the Big Ten and said administrators would work to develop policies to hold students from families with certain earning levels unharmed from increases.
In the wake of the budget cuts at the state level, Bazzell said the UW Foundation would require time to “gear up” to begin gathering more funding in the form of flexible public giving.
In response to questions as to why new flexibilities are necessary to change the university’s financial structure, Bazzell said increased autonomy for the campus would provide the ability to retain revenue currently lost to the state, including student fees intended to facilitate services on campus.
University Committee Chair Judith Burstyn also introduced a resolution in support of faculty members’ academic freedom, saying it was important for the Senate to express concern due to an open records request for UW history professor William Cronon’s emails by the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
UW political science professor Howard Schweber said the resolution is not just a response to the most recent request because officials from both sides of the political spectrum have used such requests as mechanisms of intimidation and harassment for years.
“Open records law is intended for transparency among public officials,” he said. “Issues of academic freedom are less important than misuse of the law.”
He also questioned whether students’ WiscMail emails could be considered public records within the jurisdiction of current open records law.
Martin said students are protected. She added because the Department of Justice, UW System and UW officials each interpreted the law differently there needs to be discussions about how the law would be applied when personnel are no longer classified as state employees.
She also said personnel should not begin moving their correspondence to personal accounts and UW employees could choose to advocate study of the law’s application to researchers in the future.
