After being accused of misleading students regarding the proposed split from the UW System, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin held a press conference Thursday in hopes of dispelling what she deems inaccurate rumors.
The accusations stemmed from a Jan. 7 memo obtained by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wednesday, in which Martin advocated for the separation of UW-Madison from the UW System.
Some students said they felt deceived by the Chancellor because she repeatedly professed a lack of details about the university's future relationship with the state while the memo shows Martin knew of the possible split.
Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Adam Johnson said he felt deceived by the UW-Madison administration because specifics of the plan were kept from the New Badger Partnership student working group.
""Chancellor Martin, Dean [of Students Lori] Berquam, Vice-Chancellor [of Administration Darrell] Bazzell, among others have each personally and directly misled top ASM leadership repeatedly,"" said Johnson in a blog post. ""Words cannot describe my immense dissatisfaction on behalf of students. We have been duped.""
At the press conference, Martin said the memo was in response to ""inquiries made by the governor's team. They asked hypothetical questions and we answered with hypothetical scenarios.""
Martin said she and her team have been completely public in their advocacy for flexibility for UW-Madison for the past year adding that the possibility of public authority model was discussed with student government and mentioned on the New Badger Partnership website.
If UW-Madison implemented a public authority model, it would separate from the UW system and operate under its independent governing board instead of the Board of Regents.
Although the student working group was informed of the possibility of UW-Madison implementing a public authority model, the term ""public authority"" was unable to be found on the New Badger Partnership website.
On the website, the question ""Is this initiative meant to sever ties with the state or the UW System?"" is listed in the FAQ section. The response is, ""No … this is actually intended to renew and enhance the relationship with the state.""
Martin met with members of ASM Thursday morning to address why some contents of the memo had not been discussed with the student government.
Following the meeting, ASM Chair Brandon Williams said although he felt left in the dark at first, he better understands the administration's discretion.
""If we had gotten our hands on it, it might have made it a political football before it was a political option,"" Williams said.
""While students were kept out of this information, sometimes the nature of politics is that you can't tell everyone everything,"" ASM Representative Tyler Junger agreed.
Although he said he still feels a sense of ""professional disappointment"" toward the administration, Johnson said he is ready to move forward working with university leaders.
