Following Tyson Foods Inc. boycotts at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, the Business and Finance Committee of the UW System Board of Regents announced to regents Friday they will withdraw their $200,000 investment in Tyson bonds, severing ties between the system and Tyson.
Until Tyson resolves the labor strikes in Jefferson, Wis., that began last February, regents will not fiscally involve the UW System with the company, according to the committee's plan.
Workers began striking Feb. 28 in reaction to numerous contractual changes including wage freezes, lower wages for new laborers and fewer health care benefits.
Regents based their decision in part on the refusal to use Tyson products at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee as well as testimonies from UW-Madison students in opposition to Tyson, including representatives from the Student Labor Action Coalition and other student organizations.
The board will notify these student groups of their decision.
Additionally, U.S. Reps. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, and Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, spoke to regents about the Higher Education Act, a proposed plan aimed at increasing financial aid for university students. Under the plan, universities are denied federal financial aid funding if they increase tuition by twice the rate of inflation.
This plan comes at a time when the UW System faces a $26 million allocation of reserve funds to financial aid.
\Just to keep financial aid at its current level in '05, we have a $26 million hole,"" UW System President Katharine Lyall said at the meeting Friday.
With possible new restrictions on tuition hikes comes another limitation to universities nationwide-the impending freeze of Pell Grant money that policy makers will probably pass next week, Kind said.
This academic year, qualified students were able to receive up to $4,000 in Pell Grant funds. If Pell Grant funding freezes, students will not receive more than this 2002-03 limit next year.
But Lyall encouraged regents to ask Congress not to freeze funding, citing the already dismal financial state of the system and said she would bring specific plans to combat such problems to the board in February.
""It's not the time to punish the students,"" Lyall said.
However, Kind said Congress sees no other choice but to enact the freeze.
""The freeze, at least for the next year, will be awfully tough to revert at this point,"" Kind said.
