Althouse: "UW-Madison faculty declare 'no confidence' in Board of Regents, UW System president."

May 3, 2016

"UW-Madison faculty declare 'no confidence' in Board of Regents, UW System president."

Noted.

40 comments:

Birkel said...: Wisconsin residents declare 'No Confidence' in UW-Madison faculty.; 5/3/16, 10:21 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Transcript of the faculty meeting:

FRANCIS: We're gettin' in through the underground heating system here, up through into the main audience chamber here, and Cross's wife's bedroom is here. Having grabbed his wife, we inform Cross that she is in our custody and forthwith issue our demands. Any questions?

COMMANDO XERXES: What exactly are the demands?

REG: We're giving Cross two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the UW Imperialist State, and if he doesn't agree immediately, we execute her.

MATTHIAS: Cut her head off?

FRANCIS: Cut all her bits off. Send 'em back on the hour every hour. Show them we're not to be trifled with.

REG: Also, we're demanding a ten foot mahogany statue of the Emperor Barry Alvarez with his dock hangin' out.

P.F.J.: laughing

LORETTA: What? They'll never agree to that, Reg.

REG: That's just a bar-- a bargaining counter. And of course, we point out that they bear full responsibility when we chop her up, and that we shall not submit to blackmail!

COMMANDOS: No blackmail!; 5/3/16, 10:24 AM
YoungHegelian said...: The article repeats over & over again the faculty's contention that the tenure system was being weakened. How so? I'm not trying to pick sides here, it's just that the article gives no background at all on what seems to be the faculty's major complaint.

So, how is tenure being weakened?; 5/3/16, 10:27 AM
rhhardin said...: So there will be a new Prime Minister.; 5/3/16, 10:32 AM
Rae said...: ...and they (the faculty) promptly resigned, right? I mean, wouldn't that be the ethical thing to do?; 5/3/16, 10:32 AM
rhhardin said...: Confidence has an unusual sense, meaning uncertainty.; 5/3/16, 10:35 AM
khesanh0802 said...: It is hard to live in the real world of accountability, limited funds and actual work. The changes in tenure administration - that's all it was - seemed practical and a little more in line with private industry practices. When the faculty are actually working 40 hour weeks 52 weeks per year I would then be willing to listen to complaints. I really enjoy Ann's blog, but I often wonder if she would have the time, or energy, to publish it if her workload was as intense as someone at her pay grade in private industry.; 5/3/16, 10:36 AM
damikesc said...: “After everything we’ve been through this year … what would it take to get you to vote no confidence in their actions?” sociology professor Chad Alan Goldberg, the resolution’s author, asked its opponents.

You let a Sociology professor write it. That was your first mistake. Use an ACTUAL academic.

Tenure is a joke. It is not needed, given that the only folks who will get it are the ones least likely to do anything that will be "controversial" to the leadership of the university.

If we lose another paper on the evils of white male patriarchy, I won't feel shortchanged.; 5/3/16, 10:40 AM
Michael said...: HaHaHa!!! There is absolutely zero controversial research going on at the UW_Madison or any other university in America for that matter. Not threatened. Unless of course they are referring to a conservative writing a paper but where would that conservative be in the UW system?; 5/3/16, 10:44 AM
Sal said...: it's just that the article gives no background at all on what seems to be the faculty's major complaint

The Wisconsin State Journal exists only to provide comfort to its shrinking, aging readership. It does this by never upsetting their worldview, and the safest way to do that is to write just enough to allow reader to fill in blanks with his own mind.

The newspaper also provide candy to its readers. If Scott Walker's poll numbers go down, or Obama's go up, it's the next morning's giant front-page headline. If the polls go the other way, not a peep.; 5/3/16, 10:49 AM
Dan Hossley said...: You asked in another post to explain how we ended up with Trump and Clinton. My point was that they are the logical outcome of a society unhinged from reality, so we tune into an erzatz reality. This is another example of that erzatz reality. The University systems in most states are a joke. Their product is overpriced and it under performs. It is becoming increasingly clear that the it run for the employees of the systems, not the customers or the shareholders. Without federal subsidies, the whole thing would collapse.; 5/3/16, 10:53 AM
mikee said...: Here is the truth of every university system in the US. The Regents see the faculty as sharecroppers, welcome to stay on the Regent's property as long as they produce enough profit from their cash crops (research dollars or students in classes) to justify their annoying presence.

There is no other reason to suffer the expenses of a faculty than the creation of an actual profit to the university, either through federal and state funding or student payments into the university, and I pity the poor faculty members who don't understand their place in this ancient and venerable system of money making.; 5/3/16, 11:01 AM
damikesc said...: Here is the truth of every university system in the US. The Regents see the faculty as sharecroppers, welcome to stay on the Regent's property as long as they produce enough profit from their cash crops (research dollars or students in classes) to justify their annoying presence.

We need those research funds and loan monies severely curtailed to universities.

SEVERELY curtailed.; 5/3/16, 11:03 AM
cubanbob said...: No offense to our hostess but it appears the State Legislature is expressing a no confidence vote of the UW-Madison faculty through it's agent the Regents.; 5/3/16, 11:03 AM
damikesc said...: No offense to our hostess but it appears the State Legislature is expressing a no confidence vote of the UW-Madison faculty through it's agent the Regents.

The state also seems to have more cause in doing so.; 5/3/16, 11:09 AM
Jimmy said...: The article is from the 'Onion', isn't it?; 5/3/16, 11:21 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: When I was in high school there was a petition drive to demand a smokers' lounge.; 5/3/16, 11:23 AM
Sebastian said...: "The resolution primarily focuses on new tenure policies the Regents approved this spring, arguing those changes threaten professors’ ability to pursue “risky or controversial” research that could benefit students and the state as a whole" Problem: "controversial" is stuff the left doesn't like. Only non-left academics do stuff the left doesn't like. There are no non-left academics at UW. Therefore, there is no "controversial" research going on at UW.; 5/3/16, 11:23 AM
Jimmy said...: This post is tied to the earlier post on why trump, why hillary. Seriously, can people be so clueless, out of touch? It is like reading about an alien culture.; 5/3/16, 11:26 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: How did Ann vote?; 5/3/16, 11:31 AM
YoungHegelian said...: The Regents see the faculty as sharecroppers,

That's why those poor faculty members do their jobs while singing spirituals.

They gotta, just to get through. It's only by the grace of the Lord that they make it another day!; 5/3/16, 11:35 AM
Rusty said...: " Gentlemen!"
"We have to something to keep our phonybalogny jobs!"; 5/3/16, 11:37 AM
Crimso said...: "How did Ann vote?"

I don't think she is in the Faculty Senate. The linked article begins with "Professors at UW-Madison declared..." It is the beginning of the 2nd paragraph where they admit it is only the Faculty Senate (which, admittedly, does presumably speak for the faculty).

Put it to a vote of the entire faculty. We did that once, with regard to the President of our university. The Faculty Senate pushed for the vote, having voted on whether to poll the faculty as a whole. The "no confidence" vote of the entire faculty failed. Had it stayed at the level of the Faculty Senate, it would have been regarded as a vote of "no confidence."; 5/3/16, 11:42 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Is this a case of the faculty seeking victim status?

Perhaps they are trying to claim their victim status now to get out ahead of the "UW is racist" BLM crowd.

Being a victim is a very competitive enterprise. Only the weak survive.; 5/3/16, 11:51 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: My father became a associate professor after WWII and was a full professor (Architecture) for about 30+ years until his retirement. He did not make that much money but I remember growing up that there was real prestige and honor in being a professor - people were impressed. In popular culture (Gilligan's Island!) professors were also revered and had high status.
For a number of reasons (many inevitable - some the result of complete imbeciles such as Sara Goldrick-Rab), and with the exception of certain professional schools (Law/Medicine) the social status of a professor at a state school is in my mind now about the same as the manager of a Pizza Hut. These faculty members do not seem to realize the low regard in which they are now held. Its only going to get worse so long as these schools attract and keep complete loonies. Fun reading -- http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/11/the-daily-callers-official-rundown-of-the-worst-looniest-most-leftist-professors-in-america/; 5/3/16, 11:53 AM
Anonymous said...: The Faculty Senate, by definition, would seem to be those faculty inclined toward Academic politics, that most weighty of topics. At UWI, what thinks you on the where the average Faculty Senator fits on a political spectrum.

No points if you said, to the right of Che...; 5/3/16, 11:56 AM
Sigivald said...: Fire the lot of them.

Honestly, that's a great response to most complaints with any "public" entity.

(I am more serious than you might think, despite being flippant.); 5/3/16, 12:00 PM
Michael K said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzC1Dgh17A

You don't know what it's like outside !; 5/3/16, 12:07 PM
Rick said...: Virgil Hilts said... with the exception of certain professional schools (Law/Medicine) the social status of a professor at a state school is in my mind now about the same as the manager of a Pizza Hut.

(A) The status link is not to the school but the discipline. I wouldn't necessarily include Law as a field with inherently high prestige, but Medicine, Engineering, Business, and (hard) Science sure.

(B) Pizza Hut Manager is a perfectly worthwhile career.

In popular culture (Gilligan's Island!) professors were also revered and had high status.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't a professor of Grievance Studies.; 5/3/16, 12:52 PM
pellehDin said...: I think that if all the academics [and administrators] who are truly upset packed up and left, the University would still be left with a solid core of professors in the STEM fields, and the serious academics in the social fields.

Of course, any administrator who left wouldn't even be noticed except in reducing the operating costs of the University somewhat.

I'm looking forward to someone organizing some dimwit students to riot in support of the no confidence vote. Maybe have the K-12 teachers join the demonstrations and bring their students with them. Fun, a la U of Mizzou. Maybe Click can be recruited to shove photographers around.; 5/3/16, 1:04 PM
The Godfather said...: So now the Governor and the Legislature and the Board of Regents are so terrified by the faculty's lack of confidence in them that they'll immediately change all the policies that the faculty disapprove, right? Right?; 5/3/16, 1:30 PM
Michael K said...: " the University would still be left with a solid core of professors in the STEM fields,"

A friend of mine was chair of the biomedical engineering department of Medical College of Wisconsin and had hired a premed major to do FORTRAN programming for a project they were doing. When the kid left for medical school, they had trouble finding another.

I'm sure Grievance Studies major could have filled in.; 5/3/16, 1:54 PM
Gusty Winds said...: Remember...in Star Wars it was the evil Sith Palpatine that convinced Queen Amidala to raise the vote of no confidence against Chancellor Valorum.

Wonder who put the Sociology Professor up to this one?; 5/3/16, 1:57 PM
Comanche Voter said...: I could count on my fingers--without using more than one hand---the number of college professors I truly admired and respected as a college student way back in the way back. I credit one of them--who taught American Literature for teaching me how to think critically. Go figure--how are you going to get that in a literature course

Do I have "confidence" about the faculty at either my undergrad or law schools? Not so much these days.; 5/3/16, 2:19 PM
James Pawlak said...: Those academic time-servers forget that UW belongs belongs to ALL of the People of Wisconsin who have, since 1848,built it with tax-and-tuition moneys.

I suggest that6 they be made even less-happy by having the Regents directly elected by the People (As in Nebraska)---With the same number from each Congressional District.; 5/3/16, 3:55 PM
jr565 said...: I dont have confidence in the students saying they don't hvae confidence in the president. They may in fact be right in this one instance.I'm not saying they are, I have no knowledge of his supposed crimes. However, if they are at all like the students that protest because they dont have confidence in the president of other universities they are even worse. And they should be fired from attending universities until the stop being incorrigible dipshit facists.

The president should simply get the names of eveyrone protesting and tell them they will not be attending the university next year. And the fact that they try to disrupt universities and force the president to resign over bs, has been added to their transcript. If any other university wants to accept them, its on them. At least they'll know the kind of person they're getting.; 5/3/16, 5:10 PM
jr565 said...: Watch the movie Lean On Me about Joe Clark "batman" who took on punks in his school as well as school bureaucracy. Dont watch the movie to see a realistic depiction of events. This is a feel good movie.
Watch it just to see what he does to all the disruptive kids in the school. He gathers them all in the auditorium then calls out all the trouble makers. HE gets the security guards to kick those people off the school grounds, never to return. Buh-bye.

this president doesn't have to be so severe. Simply phrase a nice letter to them and their parents telling them they are not a good fit for the university and their money will be returned. If they dont' get off campus THEN get security to kick their ass out, never to return. Buh-bye.; 5/3/16, 5:14 PM
jr565 said...: (cont) THEN, have the president turn to the womens/african american/gay studies programs and tell them YOU were the ones that made them such little dilettants that they are thinking our campus which is one of the safest non racist environments in the world is in fact a rape factory filled with patriarchy or the equivalent of Jim crow south, with KKK members freely walking around campus. You did this, you created these little monsters. YOU ARE FIRED!

That would be my wish, at any rate.; 5/3/16, 5:18 PM
rcocean said...: HaHaHa!!! There is absolutely zero controversial research going on at the UW_Madison or any other university in America for that matter.

I had the same reaction. The idea that the conformists/leftists professors say or do anything that is "risky" or "controversial" is either hilarious or pathetic - depending on your POV.

Get rid of tenure. No other profession has it, and this current crop of Professors don't need it.; 5/3/16, 5:19 PM
damikesc said...: Get rid of tenure. No other profession has it, and this current crop of Professors don't need it.

Agreed. That state governments aren't pulling every penny of funding and demanding the heads of dozens of professors every year is proof enough that there is no risk. Most well-known "research" from colleges is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it shouldn't be funded.

Fuck, we see Missouri, which is BLEEDING money and students, STILL putting out videos about how whites are all racists. And their not having every cent from the state pulled from them in spite of the university releasing virulently racist videos.

There is no risk to academia. Remove tenure.

...besides, as see with Marquette, if you're conservative and they get mad at you, tenure doesn't protect you anyway.; 5/4/16, 7:21 AM