Dive Brief:
- Faculty at Wisconsin's public colleges and universities could lose legal tenure protections and some of their power in campus decision-making if two proposals make it through the state's legislature.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that both proposals were approved by the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee as part of final budget negotiations, but they still could be changed or removed in the full legislature or by the governor.
- The state’s higher ed governing board has already promised to write new tenure protections into its own policies, but it supports subordinating the faculty role in shared governance to campus and university system leaders, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
Faculty members across the state and their allies elsewhere have lashed out over the Wisconsin legislature’s proposals, saying they limit academic freedom. The state’s proposal about shared governance would consolidate power within the governor-appointed Board of Regents. Taken together with the proposed $250 million budget cut over the next two years, the outlook for higher education in Wisconsin is dim. Just as there has been a rush of public sector employees seeking jobs in other states since Gov. Scott Walker pushed through anti-union legislation, Wisconsin higher education institutions may see an exodus of faculty who have options elsewhere.