A new bill to go before a State Assembly committee today has the
potential of weakening the integrity of the UW System and lessening
the quality of secondary education throughout Wisconsin.

Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) has introduced legislation that
would maintain UW Regent authority to propose salary ranges and
adjustments for UW System senior executive positions, but would
require Joint Finance Committee approval before they are effective.
The bill, AB 532, was referenced to the Assembly Colleges and
Universities Committee, where it will have a hearing today. Local
Assembly Representatives Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and Spencer Black
(D-Madison) sit on this committee. We call on them and their
Assembly colleagues to reject this legislation.

This bill was clearly introduced with the intent of stripping
power away from the Board of Regents in light of their recent
decision to increase the pay ranges for top executives within the
UW System.

But the Regents’ decision should be kept in context.

It was made over a conference call with barely enough regents
present to establish the necessary quorum. It was also done by
voice vote, meaning that no student citizen knows for sure who
voted for or against the decision to change the pay scales. But
that problem cannot be solved by Suder’s legislation — stripping
power away is different from exposing the processes behind that
power. For that reason, we have endorsed legislation proposed by
Kitty Rhoades (R-Hudson) to require recorded votes of Regent
decisions.

But more importantly, comparative analyses have established that
pay within the UW System is relatively low compared to that of
other university systems. The UW System recently lost chancellors
at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Stevens Point to higher-paying out-of-state
positions. The Regents’ decision to increase these ranges was taken
with the specific and positive intent of retaining the excellent
leadership our system of higher education deserves.

Let us repeat this point to all those legislators rushing to
judgment by supporting this bill: the Regents, by raising the pay
ranges, were doing their job. They, unlike the Legislature, are
held directly responsible for maintaining a high-quality system
throughout Wisconsin.

By requiring the blessing of the legislature’s most highly
politicized, contentious and powerful committee, the Joint Finance
Committee, this bill will only prolong the Regents’ most important
decisions. There is a reason such integral choices are made apart
from the Legislature: education should be managed by those people
who know something about education, not politicians with votes to
gain by what is temporarily popular.

The Regents had a tough choice to make by raising the pay
ranges. It was not politically popular, especially in a time of
widespread budget cuts and tuition hikes. However, the loss of key
personnel to other institutions is a threat that they could not
ignore.

The Regents took the steps necessary to maintain a high-quality
secondary education system in Wisconsin. We call on our local
legislators as well as all Assembly representatives to reject
legislation specifically designed to take away this power.