REGENTS ACT
TO LIMIT PERKS

Associated Press

Granting of backup jobs suspended; employees convicted of crimes will be fired

WEST BEND, Wis. — No more backup jobs for now. Get the convicts off the payroll. And nobody will get paid for not working.

Reining in employment practices that have embarrassed Wisconsin's public universities, University of Wisconsin System regents on Friday put limits on perks granted to administrators and ordered campuses to expedite the firing of employees guilty of criminal activity.

The regents, who oversee 13 four-year universities and 33,000 employees, moved after a summer of intense criticism from lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle over their personnel policies. The problems ranged from convicted felons who were still on the payroll to abuse of paid leaves.

"This package is the start of the process of reform," Regent Thomas Loftus said.

The board approved a resolution that lays out eight steps regents will take to address the problems.

It moved to continue a suspension on the granting of backup jobs, which had been a way to guarantee job security for administrators who can be fired at will. The practice, once a way to attract top level talent to provost and dean jobs, had become a common perk for even mid-level employees.

The suspension, first ordered in July by UW System President Kevin Reilly, will remain in place while the campuses review whether more administrators should work under fixed-term contracts instead.

Underperforming mid-level administrators could be let go at the end of their contracts under the new system, but this would not affect administrators who had already earned tenure.

Meanwhile, the regents ordered the campuses to immediately investigate those convicted of crimes in order to quickly remove them from the payroll.

Three UW-Madison professors recently convicted of felonies have not been fired because internal investigations required to show cause were not finished.

Board President David Walsh said the System's handling of felons did more damage to its reputation in the public eye than any other misstep.

Roberto Coronado, a physiology professor who pleaded guilty to three felony counts of repeated sexual contact with a child in March, has been collecting vacation pay in jail. The school has moved to fire him, but he is appealing the decision.

Two others — one serving a jail term for felony stalking, the other for exposing a child to pornography — have not been fired because school investigations are not over, UW-Madison said.

The regents also:

• Shortened paid leaves granted to administrators returning to teaching positions from one year to one academic semester. Administrators who have served at least five years will still be eligible for the full year. Those granted leave will have to document what work they did to brush up on their subject matter.

• Decided that administrators returning to professor jobs should be paid the same as their peers. The current policy pays them 82 percent of their previous salary, which had paid some higher salaries than those doing similar work.

• Ordered UW campuses to seek approval from president Reilly before agreeing to settlements involving the termination of administrators. Some settlements had been criticized for allowing administrators to collect their salaries for months after they resigned or were removed.

• Ordered the UW System to specify by Oct. 1 the time period after which a doctor's note for use of sick leave is required.