Post 10 in a weekly series.
The UW System Board of Regents recently adopted a tenure policy, about which much has been said statewide. How it will change day-to-day prospects for faculty I’ve no idea. The UW System changes from March 10th are only part of a process in which local campuses will have their own tenure policies reviewed at the board level. (UW-Madison adopted its own tenure policies in November, for example.)
This is, no doubt, an important topic on campus, but I am uncertain how much these changes have occupied residents not connected to campus. I’d guess Whitewater (the whole city, adding in surrounding towns) is too fragmented for there to be a common view. That’s true of many topics – we’ve passed the point of being one politically or even culturally unified place (if ever we were). There’s still a lingering desire to think and speak about Whitewater as one place, but that’s really only true as one geographical place. That’s not because the university isn’t relatively large; it’s because residents aren’t sufficiently alike to see and view the issue the same way, with the same intensity. Attention and interests differ significantly.
A webcast of the meeting is online, along with supporting written materials.
THE EDUCATION POST: Tuesdays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
I wish faculty had more clout in town but we definitely don’t. In a few circles, yes, but not overall.
Locally, there are only two lines of thought: reasoned (UW-W Faculty Senate) and reactionary (as usual: Steve Nass…).