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Students reflect on alleged wrongdoings of outgoing vice chancellor By Jessica Sonkin CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller will be replaced by interim Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Planning and Management Rob Cramer toward the end of May. While some members of the administration are thankful for Heller’s services and contributions to the campus community, many students remain disappointed with his lack of concern for student governance. “We’re very happy that Laurent is taking a next step in his career, but deeply sorry to see him go,” said Chancellor Rebecca Blank, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor of University Communications John Lucas. “His contributions over the past five years can’t be overstated in helping stabilize our finances and move numerous important initiatives forward.” Heller will assume the role of Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration at Johns Hopkins University
on June 21. In February, the Associated Students of Madison voted 18-0 in a vote of no confidence in Heller. Wisconsin State Statute 36.09(5) declares the right for distribution of shared governance among students, yet ASM found that Heller showed little interest in acknowledging student voices. “In the fall, Heller refused to convene his shared governance committee when students expressed concern over the smart restart,” said former ASM Chair Matthew Mitnick, providing examples that provoked student leaders to issue the vote of no confidence. “And in the spring, he refused to meet with any student regarding UW-Madison’s refusal to provide international students, DACA recipients and undocumented students with their rightful aid from the federal government.” Heller’s alleged refusal to meet with students regarding compensation for international student telecom-
munications came after former ASM leaders Matthew Mitnick, Samuel Jorudd, Brian Li and Lennox Owino called for Heller and Chief Human Resources Officer Mark Walters to pay working
“The moment we tried to work with Heller to help students, we realized he had no interest in engaging with students in good faith... He refused to meet with us at all and never did.”
Samuel Jorudd Former Grant Allocations Committee Chair
student telecommuters. Mitnick referred to Heller as “the least student friendly” out of all administrators who worked with ASM over the past year. “The moment we tried
to work with Heller to help students, we realized he had no interest in engaging with students in good faith,” said former Grant Allocations Committee Chair Samuel Jorudd. “Despite all of the resolutions we passed that fell under his purview, he only implemented one after a two month long fight. He refused to meet with us at all and never did.” Ultimately, Mitnick believes that Heller will be remembered for his neglect to support students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He cared more about attaining money than considering student wellbeing, according to Mitnick. “Heller consistently demonstrated a lackluster attitude toward student wellbeing,” Mitnick said. “He did nothing in response to one of his employees running over a student or his police department violently suppressing student voices during summer demonstrations. Heller is not in higher education to make positive change — he is in it for himself and his
$300,000+ salary.” Past and present ASM student leaders and staff share the hope that Cramer will demonstrate more interest in student expression. “With Laurent Heller transferring, I do hope the next Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration will be a person who values shared governance within the school, and is willing to prioritize students voices in the decisions they make affecting us,” said Lennox Owino, former Nominations Board committee chair and current vice chair of ASM. Students find their voices essential in higher education decision-making, and ASM leaders reflect on the fact that change could have been made sooner had Heller been willing to put in the time. “I am not sad to see him go at all, and frankly I wish he had left sooner,” said Jorudd. “We could have provided students with much needed aid months ago if he had. Hopefully his replacement will be willing to meet and work with students.”
The Foxconn controversy: tax breaks to breaking promises By Ashley Obuljen STAFF WRITER
In 2017, Mount Pleasant, Wis., residents were forced out of their homes for a large high-tech plant promising a surge of new jobs. More than three years later, the Foxconn project was never built and the village is in debt. The most vocal supporter of the supposedly abandoned 20-million-square-foot project — former President Donald Trump. He once said the plant would be the “eighth wonder of the world” and credited Foxconn’s interest in Mount Pleasant to his presidency. “I hate to say it, if I didn’t get elected, they wouldn’t be in this country,” Trump said. “They would not have done this in this country. I think you know that very well.” Foxconn, the largest electronic device contract manufacturer in the world, builds iPhones in China and exports them to America. The Mount Pleasant deal was an opportunity for the company to create a partnership with Trump while his administration’s trade policies jeopardized their business overseas. But despite Trump’s claims, tax cuts were the real deal-breaker for Foxconn. The agreement, struck by former Gov. Scott Walker, provided Foxconn with nearly $4 billion in state and local tax incentives.
Mount Pleasant officials were on board. They leveraged a promise of 13,000 jobs by 2023 to rationalize uprooting hundreds of residents in order to provide Foxconn with construction property. But even Foxconn was publicly hesitant about guaranteeing 13,000 jobs. In a press release, the tech giant claimed it would create 3,000 jobs with “potential” to expand to 13,000 jobs. But there was a catch: Even if 13,000 jobs rose from the Foxconn project, Wisconsin would be paying $346,153 per job at a subsidy of $4.5 billion. And that was a best case scenario projection. If the plant created just 3,000 jobs as predicted, the state would pay $1.5 million per job. There was even some pushback among Foxconn insiders concerning the location. The plant was supposed to become a site for building flat-panel display screens for electronics, but there were not any flat-panel display production suppliers in Wisconsin. While Republicans across the country praised the deal, Wisconsinites were skeptical from the beginning. A 2018 Marquette University Law School poll showed 49% of Wisconsin voters believed the state is paying more in incentives than the Foxconn plant is worth, while 38% thought the plant would provide at least as much value as
the state’s investment. A 57% majority believed that the Foxconn plant would substantially improve the economy of the greater Milwaukee area, but 66% believed their local businesses would not benefit. As the years passed, voters’ skepticism became reality. Former residents returned to Mount Pleasant to find their homes destroyed, but saw little progress on the development. In an attempt to continue to pay for construction, the village has accumulated nearly $1 billion in debt. Mount Pleasant paid more than $152 million for 132 properties and $7.9 million in relocation costs, according to a 2019 Wisconsin Watch report. Foxconn has also failed to fulfill commitments to UW-Madison. As of August 2020, UW-Madison has received less than 1% of the company’s proposed $100 million into engineering and innovation research, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. In April, the UW-Madison Office of Business Engagement hired a former Foxconn official. During his 2018 election campaign, Gov. Tony Evers criticized Walker’s original Foxconn deal for lacking transparency, exempting the project from statewide environmental protections and not requiring that the project’s new employees be Wisconsinites.
COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS
Gov. Tony Evers is announcing a new deal with technology giant Foxconn “With Foxconn, it’s been asterisk after asterisk and their end of the bargain seems to change by the day,” Evers said. “It’s a lousy deal, and we’re going to have to hold Foxconn’s feet to the fire going forward.” A new deal with Foxconn, Evers says, will save taxpayers $2.77 billion, but promises only 1,450 jobs. The deal also requires Foxconn to contribute $672 million in investments, less than 7% of the original $10 billion projection, and a target the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
says the company has already met. Still, the WEDC Board of Directors approved a contract amendment last week making Foxconn eligible for up to $80 million in performance-based tax credits over a six year timeline, granted it meets their employment targets by 2026. According to WEDC CEO Missy Hughes, Foxconn’s Mount Pleasant plant jobs in 2020 qualify the company for the new deal’s first round of tax credits despite its toll on Mount Pleasant’s community and economy.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”