It all seemed like a fairly straightforward process.
The shipping giant Amazon sought out an agreement with UW-Madison to land one of its Pickup Points, which allows customers to pick up their orders on-site, inside the campus’ historic Red Gym.
Like other contracts with private profit-making organizations in excess of $1 million, the deal was required to come before the UW System Board of Regents for formal approval. The regents looked at the contract Aug. 18 and, after some discussion, approved it.
But the decision surprised several shared governance groups on campus—because it was the first time they were even hearing about it.
“That was when we first learned about it, at the regents meeting when the agenda was sent out the day before the meeting,” said Michael Moscicke, acting president for UW-Madison’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “At that time, I raised a few concerns.”
Amazon Pickup Points LLC has secured similar agreements in other universities, such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of California, Berkeley and just one other Big Ten school, Purdue University.
The pickup site will occupy approximately 2,200 square feet of space in the Red Gym, according to UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas, and is expected to bring in revenues that guarantee the university will be paid at minimum $100,000 annually.
The contract also requested exclusive rights to be an on-campus pickup location, according to the executive summary from the regents meeting, and will last for five years. Unless either party decides to not renew it, the contract will extend for another five-year period.
Moscicke said the regents shared some of the concerns he had himself, like whether other private entities had previously been allowed to bid on the opportunity of leasing space with the university. However, he added that he understood the regents may not always have time to look into each issue in-depth since they govern so many campuses.
After the regents approved the contract, Moscicke brought his concerns back to other members of UW-Madison’s AAUP. They drafted a letter that, after it was voted on by the entire membership body, was sent to Chancellor Rebecca Blank Sept. 1.
“It’s not the usual way that we address issues,” Moscicke explained. “Usually we try to go through the elected governance groups on campus, but due to the time constraint, we just wanted to go right to the chancellor.”
The letter lists seven issues that the AAUP asks Blank to consider, including that shared governance bodies were not aware of the contract and the site could divert meeting space for important campus organizations like the Morgridge Center for Public Service and the Multicultural Student Center.
It also called the private corporation’s benefitting from the use of university resources an “ethical grey area at best,” and urged Blank to use “excessive caution and transparently apply ethical principles beyond reproach prior to entering into this and future agreements.”
Associated Students of Madison Chair Carmen Goséy explained that if shared governance had been used correctly in this instance, Student Council would have discussed the facts of the contract, as well as reached out to others in groups housed at the Red Gym and even the Dean of Students' office.
“That’s how shared governance should work,” Goséy said. “The fact that this was kept in the dark was definitely—there was no process that could be done about it, because no one knew about it.”
Shared governance has been a rather touchy subject on campus since the last biennial budget, when Gov. Scott Walker removed it from state statute so universities were no longer legally obligated to uphold it.
However, Blank has said she intends to uphold it at UW-Madison.
Goséy was equally concerned with the fact that a corporate entity would be entering into the same location as many campus safe spaces, like the Multicultural Student Center, the LGBT Campus Center and the upcoming Black Cultural Center.
“People on this campus that already do not feel it is inclusive, how do we make them feel by doing this?” Goséy asked, pointing to the string of hate crimes that occurred last semester. “It doesn’t seem as if inclusivity is in the front of our minds.”
The pickup point will not directly displace the MSC, but Lucas said it will cause the Study Abroad Resource Center to move from its current location to the former On Wisconsin room in the Red Gym.
The center’s associate director for advising, Susan Lochner Atkinson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kathy Cramer, faculty director for the Morgridge Center, said that although the center is also not directly affected by Amazon’s entry, they will end up losing space for organizations like Badger Volunteers, which previously held 50 to 70 events in the area where the Study Abroad Resource Center will move.
Cramer said she also had not heard anything of the contract before it was approved by the regents, and added that the corporate aspect of Amazon could change the atmosphere of community fostered in the Red Gym.
“The staff and students involved here have strived to make this a haven for students, and it’s my sense since becoming faculty director here at the Morgridge Center for Public Service two years ago, that they have succeeded in doing so,” Cramer said. “Inserting an Amazon pickup point immediately inside the first floor entrance would likely change that dynamic. In short, I am not happy about it.”
University personnel are now in the process of communicating with building occupants about the plans for the pickup site, according to Lucas, and he said the project “should not have an impact on programming for our students.”
To ease worries and hear conversation, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller said he has been reaching out to the various shared governance groups and will report back to those groups in hopes of facing some of the challenges they presented.
Heller said there is not a timeline for when final approval on the contract will be given, but said he will likely be the one to sign it.
“I probably would,” Heller said. “I’m trying to hold onto it until we can be sure we can do the best we can to make sure that these possible impacts are mitigated.”
