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Capitol Capsules

October 21, 2003

Hearing on UW salaries scheduled
The Joint Committee on Employment Relations was to meet Oct. 21, after Wisconsin Week’s publication deadline, to consider UW salaries. The public hearing was to take up recommendations by Karen Timberlake, director of the Office of State Employment Relations, on the proposed 2003-05 compensation and benefit adjustments for UW System senior executives, faculty and academic staff.

Timberlake has recommended that faculty and academic staff receive no pay increase in 2003-04 and a 1 percent increase in 2004-05, and that senior executives receive no pay increase in either year. She recommends the same three-tiered schedule for health insurance that was approved for classified non-represented employees (effective Jan. 1, 2004). The Board of Regents requested a 4 percent salary increase in each year for the biennium for faculty and academic staff.

Sabbatical bill has hearing
On Oct. 7, the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee heard testimony on AB 377, a bill authored by Rep. Jeff Wood, R-Chippewa Falls, that would require faculty sabbaticals to be paid for with gifts and grants. Former UW Foundation Board Chair and UW Board of Regents President David Beckwith and History Professor John Sharpless testified against the bill.

At the same hearing the committee took up several pieces of legislation related to regent authority, including: AB 532, which requires Joint Finance Committee approval of salary ranges and adjustments for UW System senior executive positions; AB 543, which removes the exemption related to open-meeting notice requirements for UW department and other meetings; and AB 558, which requires the regents to take a roll-call vote on all matters. Board of Regents Vice President David Walsh and regents Peggy Rosenzweig and Fred Mohs testified against these bills.

The committee also heard testimony on AB 366, which would require the Board of Regents to accept all credits transferred within the UW System and all credits transferred from the technical college system.

Doyle signs meningitis bill into law
Gov. Jim Doyle signed AB 344 into law as Wisconsin Act 61 on Oct. 16. This bill requires all Wisconsin colleges and universities to inform students about these diseases and to ensure that each student who resides in on-campus housing affirms that he or she has received the information and, if the student has been vaccinated against either disease, provides the date of the vaccination or vaccinations.

Concealed weapons bill advances
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed 4-1 an amended SB 214. As amended, the bill includes a posting provision that allows a nonresidential building to have posted a sign that is at least 11 inches square that states an individual cannot enter or remain in that building while going armed with a concealed weapon. However, this does not apply to a part of a building occupied by the state or to any part of a building used for parking. The university is seeking to exclude university lands from the areas where concealed weapons could be carried. The bill has been referred to the Joint Finance Committee.

For information on state-related issues, visit http://www.staterelations.wisc.edu, or contact Kristi Thorson, assistant director of State Relations, 263-5510, staterelations@bascom.wisc.edu.