Faculty members at the University of Wisconsin were disheartened on Friday after a state legislative committee approved proposals that would limit the faculty’s role in shared governance and eliminate laws protecting tenure.
The proposed changes, which some see as an attack on academic freedom, came from the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, which is working to finalize the state budget. Both chambers will still have to approve the budget before it goes to the governor, who could alter the document further with his line-item veto power.
The university system’s president and Board of Regents have promised to adopt new tenure protections in the university’s policies. But some faculty members have lost trust in the system’s leaders, whom they blame for leading a misguided attempt to free the system from many state regulations as a “public authority.”