A budget approved by a legislative committee last week would force the University of Wisconsin to return $39-million in federal grants awarded to expand high-speed Internet access across the state, state education officials said.
The plan would also require all University of Wisconsin institutions to withdraw from WiscNet, a nonprofit network cooperative that services the public universities, most of the technical and private colleges in Wisconsin, about 75 percent of the state’s elementary and high schools, and 95 percent of its public libraries, according to David F. Giroux, a spokesman for the university system.
The surprise changes were included among a series of amendments to a bill containing the university system’s 2011-13 budget. Those amendments—you can find the actual language starting at No. 23 in this motion—were approved by the State Legislature’s joint finance committee on Friday. But the full budget has yet to be passed by the Republican-led legislature or signed by the Republican governor, opening a window for libraries and others to fight back against the plan.
“These provisions will have a devastating impact on the University of Wisconsin system campuses and our schools and public libraries,” Tony Evers, state superintendent of public instruction, wrote Tuesday in a memo to Wisconsin’s education and library communities. “This language was introduced very late in the legislative process and there was no time for any public review, comments, or feedback from those impacted by these provisions.”
The assault on WiscNet, which operates under the auspices of University of Wisconsin at Madison, follows the state’s adoption of a law in March denying collective-bargaining rights to the university system’s faculty and academic staff—a measure that remains tied up in court. It also comes as the Obama Administration is awarding tens of millions of dollars to the national university networking community to expand high-speed Internet access around the country.
The University of Wisconsin is the biggest consumer of services provided by WiscNet. Forcing its campuses to pull out would threaten that network’s survival, state education officials said.
“The provision in this legislation will very likely make it impossible for WiscNet to continue offering Internet access,” Mr. Evers said in his memo. “If our schools and libraries must use other Internet providers, most will pay at least two to three times more than what WiscNet now charges.”
Republican lawmakers told the Wisconsin State Journal that the university should not be in the telecommunications business. Telecommunications companies themselves cast the debate as a question of competition. Bill Esbeck, executive director of the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association, was quoted on Channel3000 saying that WiscNet should be allowed to run only without financial support from the University of Wisconsin.
“WiscNet can continue to offer services, but in the future they are just going to do that on a more level playing field with the private-sector options that already exist,” Mr. Esbeck said.
Another provision in the plan would bar any University of Wisconsin campus from participating in advanced networks connecting research institutions worldwide, according to Mr. Evers’s memo. For example, the Madison campus would have to withdraw from Internet2, a high-speed networking consortium, said Mr. Giroux.
As for the $39-million in federal grants, they were awarded to two efforts: one involving the flagship campus, and another through the University of Wisconsin-Extension. The money is to expand broadband connections for health-care providers, public-safety agencies, community organizations, and schools, among other projects. Some of the money has already been spent, Mr. Giroux said, but he did not have specific figures this afternoon.
