Faculty advocates are up in arms over proposed legislation in Wisconsin calling for a sweeping overhaul of the state’s public-university system. The measure, passed by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance as part of negotiations on the state budget, would greatly reduce faculty members’ say in the University of Wisconsin system’s affairs and scrap state laws providing them job protections such as tenure.
Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who set in motion the effort to overhaul the university system, and the leading Republican lawmakers who back the measure argue that the system needs to become more top-down and nimble to remain competitive. Faculty representatives who oppose the bill argue it will trigger an exodus of talented professors and hinder the system’s efforts to recruit top scholars.
The American Association of University Professors urged system officials on Wednesday to fight the legislation and keep current state law intact. The group’s letter to them called the proposed changes in faculty-employment rights, along with a proposed $250-million reduction in the system’s state appropriation, “a direct attack on higher education as a public good.”
The system’s regents are expected to discuss the legislation, and how they might respond to it, when they meet on Friday. What follows is an analysis of the legislation’s prospects and potential impact, with answers to many of the questions being asked by observers of the Wisconsin debate.
What’s at stake for faculty members?
Wisconsin stands apart in how it has enshrined shared governance and college faculty members’ job protections in state law. They first entered into state statute through the legislation that merged a state-college system with the University of Wisconsin in the early 1970s.
Although a few other states, such as California and Washington, have laws touching upon college faculty members’ tenure rights, most of those provisions cover only instructors at community colleges, stemming from historical ties between those colleges and public schools. Nearly every other state leaves it up to colleges’ governing boards or systems to set the terms of employment for their faculty members.
The proposed change in Wisconsin law would scrub from the original legislation both tenure protections and provisions giving faculty members responsibility for the immediate governance of their institutions. It would delete from that law provisions saying that faculty members automatically qualify for tenure after seven years and that tenured faculty members can be fired only for just cause.
It would also alter a separate law dealing with layoffs of tenured faculty members to allow their dismissal not just in response to financial emergencies, but whenever necessary as a result of budgetary or programmatic decisions.
What employment rights does the proposed law leave professors?
The university system’s faculty members would be left with rights similar to those Wisconsin affords to any other public employee. They include a right to advance notice of, and an explanation for, any layoff decision, and a right to appeal decisions they regard as discriminatory based on incorrect information or in violation of the university board’s own procedures. Faculty members also would have a distinct appeal right for any employment dismissal they believe to have come in response to conduct or speech covered by academic freedom.
Would the bill strip tenure from professors who already have it?
Almost certainly not. No less an authority than the U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 10, prohibits states from enacting laws that impair the obligation of contracts. As a result, the state would almost certainly face an expensive legal fight if it failed to grandfather in tenure for the professors who already have it under state law.
How would the measure change university governance?
It states that the faculty’s role in university governance shall be purely advisory, and it leaves the faculty subordinate to the system’s board, president, and campus chancellors. The proposal would give chancellors significantly more power over spending decisions on their respective campuses, and would require the faculty of each campus to ensure that its organizational structures include adequate representation from academic disciplines related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Does the measure stand much chance of passing?
Yes. It generally reflects Gov. Scott Walker’s thinking on university governance, and it has widespread support among the Republicans who hold a majority in the state’s Senate and Assembly. Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, is highly critical of the proposed legislation but nonetheless characterizes it as “pretty much a done deal.”
What, if anything, would university-system or campus leaders be able to do to restore faculty members’ job protections and say in governance?
Not much. The proposed legislation fairly clearly spells out faculty rights and powers in both areas, tying system officials’ hands.
It’s also unclear whether the officials will want to exercise any wiggle room they might have to restore faculty members’ old job rights and powers. Of the Board of Regents’ 18 members, 16 are appointed by the governor, subject to the state Senate’s approval.
Governor Walker has made a name for himself among Republicans by mounting successful efforts to curb the power of unions representing public-college faculty members and other state employees. He and his board appointees almost certainly know where each other stand.
Peter Schmidt writes about affirmative action, academic labor, and issues related to academic freedom. Contact him at peter.schmidt@chronicle.com.
