POSTED BY JENNIFER RUTH
On June 18, the executive committee of AAUP Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers issued the following statement on University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s proposal to close the College of General Studies
In the United States, the university is in crisis. There is no starker evidence of this emergency than recent efforts to close the College of General Studies (CGS) at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Last month, the Chancellor’s Office published the document “Program Discontinuance Proposal for the UWM College of General Studies.” As its title brazenly states, the study purports to offer the grounds for closing CGS and, in the process, laying off its faculty and staff. As its title brazenly states, the study purports to offer the grounds for closing CGS and, in the process, laying off its faculty and staff. Forty-seven tenured faculty stand to lose their positions, along with a larger number of staff. It is worth noting that 100 percent of CGS faculty are tenured or tenure-line.
Our colleagues in UWM-AAUP have succinctly summarized the rationale offered by the Chancellor’s Office:
The administration cites steep declines in enrollment and a proportionally large expenditure of state appropriations as reasons to view the continued operation of CGS as untenable. The enrollment declines are undeniable and are mirrored at every former UW Colleges location. Apart from the national trends the administration cites, they are the result of disastrous decisions, under conditions of needless austerity, to regionalize administration and advising within the UW Colleges going back a decade. As for state appropriations, the administration reports that these make up 48% of CGS’s budget, as opposed to 27% on average for the main campus units. Were CGS funded at that 27% level, it would need an additional $2.5 million per year to operate. To summarize: UWM’s administration is proposing to take the alarming and unprecedented step of laying off over 40 tenured faculty members, along with many more academic and university staff, over a sum of $2.5 million, or four-tenths of one percent of the university’s annual operating budget.”
Currently, CGS functions as a gateway that allows often economically disadvantaged students to access higher education. If permitted to go forward, the so-called “program discontinuance” will be devastating to many more beyond CGS’s faculty and staff.
The executive committee of AAUP Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers unequivocally condemns Chancellor Mark Mone’s efforts to diminish education as a public good in the state of Wisconsin. The rationale that motivates the proposed closure is as brazen as it is flimsy: UWM has not declared financial exigency or offered any proof thereof, but rather bases its proposal on cost-cutting in response to questionable evidence of recent and projected enrollment declines. While enrollment decline has been a reality across higher ed in the last few years, it alone cannot merit a drastic response of the scale proposed by UWM. It is a red herring denying the important role that public education has historically played in the US vision of a democratic society Essentially, the Chancellor’s Office’s solution follows a logic of austerity and belt tightening with which we are familiar: because CGS, as an institution of higher education, has the audacity to rely on state coffers for educating the people of Wisconsin, it must be eliminated. In this attack on higher education, the UW system has enlisted the help of the consultancy firm Deloitte. This outsourcing practice to a private company undermines UWM’s mission to serve the public, taxpayers, and students that are the university’s primary constituency.
Most egregiously, the program closure proposal hollows out the institution of tenure. It seemingly does so in flagrant disregard for the centrality of tenure to the mission of the modern university. The AAUP 1940 Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure understands that centrality in the following terms: “Tenure is a means to certain ends; specifically: (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities, and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.” Were the current proposal to be realized, academic freedom and shared governance would cease to play any meaningful role at the University of Wisconsin. And make no mistake: the precedent that Chancellor Mone sets is one whereby tenure can be rescinded as a cost-cutting measure at any campus in the University of Wisconsin system. These sorts of actions become playbooks for right-wing moves in other states, as well.
The executive committee of AAUP Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers rejects in the strongest terms the procedure and rationale that has led to this proposal. We call on faculty across the UW system to support their colleagues at the College of General Studies and, in so doing, reassert its value and indeed that of higher education as an irrefutable and vital public good in Wisconsin. We call on Chancellor Mone to keep his word: “I need to fight as strongly as possible to protect tenure, shared governance and support indefinite status and other policies that are crucial to the value of our employees” and “our campus must strive to comport with AAUP principles and policies.” We call on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to uphold their commitment: “The maintenance of tenure-track and tenured faculty, and of essential instructional and supporting services, remains the highest priority of the university.” We urge the chancellor and board of regents to join us in our effort to revitalize education as a public good essential to sustain our democracy.
