Wisconsin battle over diversity, tax dollars; deal in the works
MILWAUKEE - A battle over diversity and tax dollars is being waged in Wisconsin. A deal would give higher pay to all Universities of Wisconsin workers and a new engineering building. In exchange, the universities would cut some jobs dedicated to diversity.
"All of my colleagues want that pay raise, even though it’s embarrassingly small. We all want the pay raise, but we also, I think more importantly, we want to see a healthy, thriving university," said Rachel Ida Buff, UWM history professor and department chair. "We want to represent the Wisconsin idea as it could be realized in the 21st century: as a force for racial equity, as a force for untrammeled inquiry, as a force for improving our state."
The proposal would give a 4% pay raise this year, and another 2% next year. It would also invest nearly $200 million into building a new UW engineering building in Madison – as well, it would put money into two halls at UW-Whitewater. It would also allow the top 5% of students in a gradauting class of 15 or more guaranteed admission to UW-Madison – and the top 10% would have the same at all other UW schools.
Engineering Hall, University of Wisconsin
The catch is, through 2026 the system would not add new DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) positions – and would move at least 33% of the current roles (or at least 43 jobs) to focus instead on "academic and student success."
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"I think far too many people don’t realize how truly cancerous this is for our democracy," said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on 1130AM. "The idea that we have gone from something that said that people should be judged on the content of their character and now we’ve gone to say it should be based on where they are born, the race that they currently have and the idea of what they want to be for the gender, I mean this is just a bunch of crap."
"I think he’s really wrong," Buff said. "I think this is an ideological, unprincipled attack and you shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists. I understand that we have to, dude is holding our legislature hostage, holding our pay raises hostage, but this is not a fair deal. We are not doing well on diversity, equity and inclusion."
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman agreed to the deal, calling it a fair compromise. But the UW-system regents on Saturday voted 9-8 to reject it.
"When you look at Wisconsin political history, there have been times when the legislature and the university have sort of been at war with each other. There were times for example, where in the 1950s, when the conservative legislature was hunting for commie professors," said Mordecai Lee, UWM Professor Emeritus. "And as it turned out, a university doesn't have much leverage against a legislature. When you're a public university, you're dependent in part on the money that's appropriated by the legislature. And so, for most of the 50s and part of the 60s, university professors had to sign an oath of loyalty to the United States."
Mordecai Lee
The legislature and governor had already approved the pay raises in the current budget, but the legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations held up the raise over the DEI funding.
On Monday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Republicans were done negotiating.
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On Tuesday, regents met again in a session closed to the public. They then adjourned without acting. However, the Universities of Wisconsin regents will meet and vote on the proposal again on Wednesday. One of the board members who voted no on Saturday, Amy Blumenfeld Bogost, is now recommending its approval.
Gov. Tony Evers on Saturday said he backed the regents rejecting the deal. He said at the time he was looking forward to discussions in the weeks and months to come.
He tweeted Tuesday: "The Board of Regents should be able to make decisions about what’s best for our students, faculty, staff, and, ultimately, what’s best for the University of Wisconsin System without fear of threats and political pressure or retribution."
In a letter sent to UW-Milwaukee's chancellor Mark Mone sent to faculty, staff and students last week, he wrote: "The agreement announced today is not ideal. It requires us to compromise and adapt to the pressures and world around us. The Universities of Wisconsin saying ‘no’ would have had a significant, negative long-term impact on our students and employees."