The Faculty Senate voted to approve a proposal Monday to ensure that faculty members can freely criticize the actions of UW-Madison administrators and policies.
The new proposal, written by UW-Madison political science professor Donald Downs, ensures that faculty members will not be punished for speaking about public issues as private citizens or within the context of their expertise as an employee at UW-Madison.
Ian Dobson, a UW-Madison professor of engineering, said although he supports the amendment, he felt that speech within one's area of expertise as a faculty member could also be considered speech on behalf of the university.
""When you're contacted to make a statement about your area of capacity and that happens to be a matter of public interest or concern … then they are asking you for an informed opinion based on being a member of the University of Wisconsin,"" he said.
According to Chancellor Biddy Martin, however, there is a distinction between these two types of speech.
""Even if you're speaking in your official capacity on a matter of public concern you are not speaking on behalf of the university,"" she said.
The amendment also states faculty members are still required to act responsibly and to acknowledge that they are not speaking on behalf of the university in certain situations.
""It does acknowledge that we feel a sense of responsibility for the words we choose and the environment we choose to say it,"" UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless said.
Bill Tracy, chair of the Faculty Senate's University Committee, also addressed the UC's ad hoc committee report evaluating provost Paul DeLuca's proposal to create a new Vice Chancellor for Research position, which is a duty currently held by the Dean of the Graduate School.
Tracy said the ad hoc committee called to increase the workload of the associate deans to relieve the burden from the individual serving both roles rather than separate the job into two different positions.
""The ad hoc committee took the position that UW-Madison has done well in research and we were concerned that we didn't destroy a good system but recognize that there were improvements to be made,"" Hector DeLuca, chair of the ad hoc committee, said.
