The Faculty Senate of the University
of Wisconsin-Whitewater recommends to the University of Wisconsin System
Board of Regents that the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students who
have applied for graduation in December 2001 and who have been certified
by the University Registrar to have met all academic requirements and completed
all of their courses of study be granted their degrees at the December
2001 commencement exercises.
And because, in the Marder case, this inappropriate standard was
applied to no adequate findings of fact;
And because this standard is inapplicable in the specific situation
of faculty members at a University of Wisconsin institution, with the distinctive
rights and imperatives of academic freedom and shared governance and all
that such entail;
The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater Faculty Senate strenuously
objects to the Board of Regents’ adoption of the Safransky decision as
the standard of “just cause” and calls upon the Board of Regents to restore
due process protections of tenure and to return to the principle of “just
cause” as it is traditionally understood in the context of academic institutions;
and
The Faculty Senate further calls upon the Board of Regents in making
their decisions to comply fully with procedural and substantive provisions
of the UWS Administrative Code and state statutes;
And the Faculty Senate further directs that copies of this resolution
be forwarded to the Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, the
President of the University of Wisconsin System, the Office of the Governor
of the State of Wisconsin, the members of the Senate and Assembly of the
State of Wisconsin, and the office of the Attorney General.
Because the Board of Regents of
the University of Wisconsin System has adopted the Safransky decision (Safransky
v. The Personnel Board, 62 Wis.2d 464 [1974]) as the standard of “just
cause,” which standard permits the dismissal of a faculty member at a University
of Wisconsin institution if "some deficiency has been demonstrated which
can reasonably be said to have a tendency to impair his [sic] performance
of the duties of his [sic] position or the efficiency of the group with
which he [sic] works”;