UW-Milwaukee Faculty Vote No-Confidence in Cross, Regents; Walker Criticizes Profs

A UW-Milwaukee lecture hall meant to fit roughly 170 people overflowed with nearly 300 faculty and individuals who voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a ‘No Confidence’ Resolution against UW System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents.

“To have almost 300 faculty in a classroom meant for 170 tells a lot about how important this was to the UW-Milwaukee faculty,” said Associate Professor Matt Petering.

Faculty and individuals were offered to move rooms by Chancellor Mark Mone, but answered with a roaring “just call the vote.”

Just prior to the faculty meeting at UWM, Office of the Governor Scott Walker released a press release with a headline reading, “University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Fuss Leaves Out Important Facts.” The press release also stated that before UWM faculty issue their “collective groan” today, it is important to highlight what Walker called the facts.

His statement said full professor salaries averaged more than $100,000 in 2013-14 school year while average annual pay for all workers in Milwaukee County was just under $50,000 in 2014 (not all professors or instructional academic staff are full professors at UWM and those who aren’t make less on average). Also, student enrollment has dropped nearly four times more than faculty from 2010-2014, Walker said.

UWM Chancellor Mone welcomed the overcrowded room as he presented three Faculty Senators Rachel Buff, Nicholas Fleisher and Richard Leson. The senators raised concerns about the UW System tenure, layoff policies and budget cuts expressing that UW System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents “by their actions have engaged in practices that fall far short of principles of responsible governance.”

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Leson, President of The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals Local 3535 said, “UW-Milwaukee faculty calls on System President Ray Cross and Board of Regents to recommit themselves to the Wisconsin Idea.”

The Wisconsin Idea is identified as, “to the government in the forms of serving in office, offering advice about public policy, providing information and exercising technical skill, and to the citizens in the forms of doing research directed at solving problems that are important to the state and conducting outreach activities.”

Leson also said the cuts taking place within the past 16 months are “devastating” and how as faculty they see the effects of these cuts every single day.

After each faculty senator spoke, it was clear all faculty in the room was in agreement with their statements and responded with an overwhelming applauding accompanied with a standing ovation at the end.

Along with the faculty senators speaking, various faculty members read off the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Document No. 3050. The resolution contained important highlights of the achievements UWM has made such as in 2016 being classified as a Research 1 institution in the Carnegie Classification for the first time in history.

Another achievement being in January 2015, UWM was classified as a top university for community engagement by the Carnegie Foundation. The faculty member also stated from the document that “affordable tuition, adequate budget, strong tenure, and shared governance are essential to the quality of a university’s educational, scholarly, and outreach missions.”

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Document also highlighted within its 17 statements:

• “Program changes based on non-educational considerations, the erosion of academic due process, and the circumventing of shared governance jeopardize the quality of students’ education and imperil the dual mission of UW-Milwaukee and its R1 and community engagement status.”
• “The erosion of tenure and shared governance in conjunction with budget cuts is likely to have a disproportionately negative impact on faculty and students who are already most marginalized and/or engaged in politically controversial research.”

Prior to the faculty voting unanimously, the bolded statement at the bottom of the document resolved that UWM Faculty have no confidence in Cross and Board of Regents’ commitment to defending the Wisconsin Idea. After this was stated, the room filled with applause once again and the verdict was reached.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been the most recent to vote in favor of the ‘No Confidence Resolution’ on May 2.  UW-La Crosse and UW-River Falls also voted in favor of the resolution, making UWM the fourth to do so. Shortly after UW-Madison made its decision, Board of Regents stated they have total confidence in President Cross.

Cross responded after the UW-Madison vote in other media reports saying he respected the Madison faculty’s right to “voice its concerns” but that he disagreed with the resolution. “As president of the System and a faculty member, it is critically important that I advocate for UW-Madison and all UW System institutions,” he had said.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Document referenced in the ‘Resolution of No Confidence’ can be found here.

Walker’s statement, though. was strongly critical of the professors.

“Some faculty bodies, including faculty at UW-M today, appear more interested in protecting outdated ‘job for life’ tenure than about helping students get the best education possible,” said Governor Walker.  “The University should not be about protecting the interests of the faculty, but about delivering value and excellence to Wisconsin.”