The Daily Cardinal Ed Board calls for increased UW Athletic Board power OPINION
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Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Athletic Board should vote on all coach hires, report says By Ryan Hebel The Daily Cardinal
Nelson Cho/the daily cardinal
District 5 County Board seat winner Analiese Eicher celebrates at the Red Gym after receiving the results of her election Tuesday night, when she defeated former Madison Area Technical College student Michael Johnson by a count of 161-100.
Eicher wins Dane County Board of Supervisors student district By Grace Urban The Daily Cardinal
UW-Madison student Analiese Eicher won the District 5 Dane County Board of Supervisors seat over opponent Michael Johnson Tuesday with 161 votes to his 100. District 5 is comprised predominantly of students, and Eicher said her main goal on the board would be ensuring adequate communication between her and her constituents. “My first priority is to reopen [communication] and I guess just make sure students know they have a representative on the county board and that that
person is approachable and available,” she said. Eicher, a member of College Democrats of Wisconsin, said she also hopes to focus on issues important to students, such as the environment. Johnson, who is a member of Madison’s Affirmative Action Commission and a former student at Madison Area Technical College, focused his campaign on housing issues in the county with the intention of restarting Dane County’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. He said he plans to stay involved in local politics and hopes to help in the Madison
City Council elections next year. “I’ve definitely made a lot of friends since I’ve gotten here,” he said. “I’ll definitely still be involved.” “My first priority is to reopen [communication] and... make sure students know they have a representative on the county board.” Analiese Eicher county board member District 5
The election had a low turnout, something Johnson expect-
ed. However, both young candidates felt their campaigns had gone well. “A couple dozen people on Facebook changed their profile picture to my campaign logo, and I was very happy to see people so energetic,” Johnson said. Eicher said she tried to focus her campaign not just on students, but also the community. “I’ve been working really hard and I’ve gotten a wonderful, very positive response,” she said. “I’m really committed to this and I want to do the best job possible for all UW students as their representative on the county board.”
Brothers Bar and Grill drops lawsuit against UW Board of Regents, accepts $2.1 million buyout By Grace Urban The Daily Cardinal
The owners of Brothers Bar and Grill have agreed to drop their lawsuit against the UW Board of Regents, ending a lengthy legal battle just one day before their scheduled trial. According to UW System spokesperson David Giroux, property owners Marc and Eric Fortney have agreed to accept the university’s offer of $2.1 million to purchase the property. “We went into this process saying we wanted to acquire the property at a fair price, a price that was good for the property owners and one that protected
taxpayers and students,” Giroux said. “We’ve always argued $2.1 million is a fair price.”
“We’ve always argued $2.1 million is a fair price.”
David Giroux spokesperson UW System
The Fortneys sued the UW Board of Regents after the UW System voted to use its power of eminent domain to displace
Brothers in an effort to make way for a new School of Music building. The Fortney’s lawsuit had argued the Regents did not have the right to condemn Brothers until it demonstrated the condemnation was in “public interest.” The lawsuit also called on the university to secure more funding for the new music school and offer them more money to relocate. A state lawmaker had recently introduced a bill after hearing about the lawsuit to limit the UW System’s eminent domain authority by suggesting it be subject to the review of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. However, Giroux said the UW
System had been more than reasonable with its offer, which the Fortneys had tentatively accepted before. “We’ll live up to our obligations; we’ll pay the property owners what we offered them and we’ll abide by the law and we will pay them a reasonable amount for relocation,” Giroux said. “That is what we are required to do under the law, and we will do it.” The university must pay within the next 30 days. The Fortneys could not be reached for comment. However, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, they plan to focus their efforts on finding a new location for their business, which they plan to build near campus.
The UW-Madison Athletic Board should be voting on all coach hiring decisions, according to a new report commissioned by the Faculty Senate. The report, written by seven UW faculty members, concluded that the Board was “largely in compliance” with Faculty Policies & Procedures and “actively involved in the governance of the Athletic Department.” However, the report recommended the Athletic Board make three changes, including clarifying its hiring oversight policies. “[Hiring] was typically being done by a subcommittee and then reported to the Board, but not always voted on by the whole Board,” Murray Clayton, chair of the ad hoc committee that created the report, said. “We thought that was a place where the full Board has to be engaged.” The suggested language would give the Board explicit approval power. Clayton said an internal review by the Athletic Board regarding its oversight role sparked a call for the Faculty Senate to perform an outside examination last spring. According to UW History professor Jeremi Suri, who served on the Athletic Board from 2005’08, much of the debate focused on the internal review’s assertion that the Board was merely consulted by the chancellor “as a courtesy” on hiring decisions. According to Faculty Policies & Procedures, however, one of the Board’s functions is “participating actively in the search-and-screen process for head coaches and senior administrators … and approving the employment contracts of such persons.” UW Political Science Professor Donald Downs, said the recommendations made important improvements to last spring’s internal review. “Without the university there would be no athletic program,” Downs said. “We just wanted to maintain the potential of the Athletic Board and faculty of having ultimate oversight.” According to former Athletic Board Chair Dave McDonald, the new report’s recommendations are appropriate precautions, not responses to insufficient Athletic Board oversight. “Since this [hiring] procedure first began in 1934, I can’t think of any time that a Board has actively moved to contradict a hiring recommendation by the department,” McDonald said. athletic board page 3
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”