We met with Profs Nick Fleisher and Richard Leson to discuss introducing a resolution on actions by UW System and Board of Regents at a faculty meeting that will be called for May 10th at 2:30 pm in AUP 170. The link to the agenda and resolution draft is here. The primary issues that have prompted this meeting are faculty concern with the lack of advocacy from the Board and Regents and System administration for providing accessible and affordable quality education to WI citizens, and defending the university budget. Recent actions by the Board have also weakened tenure protections and threaten academic freedom and governance. Such actions threaten the climate of open and free exchange of ideas and undermine the faculty role in academic programming. We see high quality public higher education as a public good and thus call upon the faculty to attend the meeting on May 10, and in particular to defend UWM and its dual missions of access and research. Similar meetings are planned for other campuses in the system. The UW Madison Faculty Senate met on May 2 and passed a similar resolution. Details of the Madison action can be found: https://www.secfac.wisc.edu/documents/2630BoRfinal.pdf
We also reviewed the new Faculty Senate Roster to identify potential nominees for the Rules committee in preparation for the May 12 Senate meeting. The UWM Tenure and Post-Tenure Documents will be formulated in the coming months. John Riesel was also elected as UC chair for 2016.