What’s the problem? I thought liberal academics liked change.

Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Ed reports.

New Threat to Shared Governance

A meeting between the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and state legislators last week was designed mainly to find common ground in the wake of recent disputes over cash reserves. But discussions during the meeting about rethinking shared governance had some faculty feeling like they were left holding the bag for administrators’ actions – and that their decision-making authority within the system was under threat.

The conference, “Finding Common Ground: Regent Governance, Funding, and Partnerships for Wisconsin’s Public University System,” was initiated by the board, following a state audit this spring that showed the university system had cash reserves of $648 million, about a quarter of its annual appropriation. The funds were distributed among many accounts across the system and the funds had gone virtually unmentioned to state officials. While many state higher education systems use reserves, the issue highlighted legislative-board relations. System President Kevin Reilly, who has been in office since 2004, recently announced that he will be stepping down in January.

Michael Falbo, the board’s president, told legislators they needed to “reboot” the longstanding partnership between Wisconsin and its public universities.“We need to remember that we are all in this together, and we need to look at ways to strengthen that partnership.”

During a panel discussion on board governance, however, legislators took the opportunity to start a discussion about the role of the faculty in decision making.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, said governance changes within the system were a matter of “when, not if,” and that university chancellors should be empowered to “truly be the chief executive officers.”

Vos added: “Does the role of allowing faculty to make a huge number of decisions help the system or hurt the system?”

Some faculty advocates present, including Sara Goldrick-Rab, associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the Madison campus, where the meeting took place, called those statements troubling.

“Vos, in his remarks, very explicitly stated that we need to look into this issue of perceived inefficiency,” stemming from faculty involvement in decision making, she said. “I attended this meeting very interested to hear the conversation, but I did not expect to hear any of that.”