In one of the last moves of his chancellorship of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, John Wiley took aim at the state Legislature and business lobby group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in a recent column for Madison Magazine last week. Wiley accused the Legislature of producing a “hyper-politicized environment” and pointed to WMC as one of the main culprits responsible for the lack of funding for the UW System.

There is no doubt that Wiley’s call to arms has some validity. Legislators such as Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, have treated the UW System as a political lightning rod at every turn  — be it with the appointment of Biddy Martin, administrative salaries or curricula of certain departments. Assembly Republicans were also notorious roadblocks to increases in systemwide funding during the current biennium’s budget delay.

Wiley neglects to mention at any point where UW might have failed in negotiations. The onus is certainly on the Legislature to provide adequate funding for higher education in this state, but UW is not without fault in budget negotiations or justification of its own expenses.

Yet it is not so much Wiley’s omissions that concern us, but rather the tone and end effect of his criticism that proves problematic for the university as a whole. While Wiley’s frustration is certainly understandable, his use of hyperbole and near-vitriolic condemnation of WMC could exacerbate UW’s precarious relationship with the Legislature.

Chancellor Biddy Martin comes to this university with a fresh opportunity to improve relations with this university’s critics, and she seems up to the task. That became much harder when her predecessor fired a parting arrow with UW’s name on it. While UW certainly needs to defend its right to state funding and many should be fighting on behalf of the university, political wrangling is best left to activists and politicians, not UW representatives.

Although his rhetoric occasionally reaches levels of absurdity — Wisconsin will likely never become a “third-world state” — Wiley’s warning to Wisconsin voters is a fair political move. In fact, further efforts by Wiley to wage political war against UW’s harshest critics could aid the university in the end.

But not if he maintains his official connection to this university. Even though Wiley wrote this column in the midst of leaving his post, his role as interim director of the UW half of Institutes of Discovery means he still serves as an ambassador of this university. If Wiley chooses to join political advocates on the legislative battlefield, he must finally leave the trenches of UW administration so it can carry out its own diplomacy without interference.