Earlier I was pretty critical of some of the things that Governor Doyle said about Wisconsin investments in stem cell and biotechnology research. There was one issue I neglected to mention that he got exactly right.
A major theme of the symposium was the growing research opportunities on smaller state college campuses, which some believe would be aided if research-oriented professors were relieved of some teaching responsibilities. Doyle was non-committal on the subject, saying it’s a question of university governance.
“We have two very, very important missions at our university,” he said. “Number one is to educate people, to make sure students can get into the university, that it’s affordable, that they can get the classes they need, and have enough sections and enough professors to make sure they can get what they need and graduate.
“These institutions also are great centers of research, so you’ve got to balance those, and what that right balance is, the university has to figure that out.”
Doyle is right on about what the role of state government ought to be. It’s not the job of the state legislature or governor to be micromanaging exactly what the UW does. That’s why positions like the chancellor exist. There are a number of other people who could stand to learn from Gov. Doyle on this issue. The state government should be involved in the big picture, most important decisions and leave the specifics and details up to the UW and the administrators. There are some elected officials who don’t quite realize that they were elected to the state legislature not the Board of Regents.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Bucky Joe // Jul 29, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Ah, but now we find out that the Governor interviewed the finalists for the Chancellor position?! That’s not meddling?
How would we feel if Steve Nass interviewed them?
2 Sam Clegg // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:12 pm
You’re right, but in reality Nass has about as much right (if not more, unfortunately) to interview the candidates.
3 Fearless Sifting // Jul 30, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Considering the importance of the position, I don’t think its unreasonable for Doyle to want to talk to the finalists before the decision was made. I also don’t have a problem with him giving some input to the selection committee, as long as his opinions were not given too much weight in the decision process. The selection committee solicited thoughts from students, faculty and members of the community on the various candidates. I don’t see why state officials should not also provide some input. UW-Madison is a state institution and an important part of the chancellor’s job is to deal with state officials.
I would have a problem if the governor or state legislators were given too much influence and usurped the authority of the selection committee to actually make the final decision and from what the chair of the selection committee is quoted as saying that was not the case. I would say that the selection of the chancellor qualifies as one of the major decisions that the state would be justified in having some involvement.
Leave a Comment