More voices needed in search for UW System President

The University of Wisconsin system operates under a policy known as shared governance. Giving everybody involved input in the decision making process. But when it comes to selecting the next President of the UW System, there isn’t a lot of sharing going on. A replacement is need for Ray Cross who is retiring. Normally in these situations, lots of people would be given a seat at the table to search for a new head of the UW System. But Board of Regents President Drew Peterson instead has appointed a small committee, the narrowest of any such search committee in decades. Only 9 people have been appointed to the search committee. None are faculty, academic staff or students. So much for shared governance. The decision to appoint the search committee came just one week after Cross’ retirement announcement, and was made without consulting any faculty, students or staff about the makeup of the committee. Peterson is under pressure to expand the committee, and give more diverse voices to the search process. Faculty from 13 UW campuses and a number of state legislators have called on Peterson to expand the size of the search committee, but he has refused. The fact is 96% of the UW workforce is made up of faculty, academic staff and university staff. They should have a say in the selection of their next boss.