The Labor Codes and Licensing Advisory Committee dealt with more changes when UW-Madison senior Melanie Meyer resigned Jan. 30 due to structural changes and administrative intervention.
Meyer’s discontent first began over the summer when UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank requested a selection of students from which she could choose representatives to sit on LCLAC. This broke with a tradition where Associated Students of Madison appointed three representatives.
“She really wants this slating so she can really hand pick the students that are on the committee,” Meyer said. “And to make sure that those activists and those people who will have dissenting opinions are not put on the committee in the first place.”
Often these “dissenting opinions” came from members of UW-Madison’s Student Action Labor Coalition who also serve on LCLAC, a committee consisting of representatives from the student body, academic staff, faculty and classified staff.
Meyer wrote in a resignation letter dated Jan. 27 she believes the chancellor views SLAC members as “radical,” which is an attitude Blank seeks to limit, although SLAC members’ involvement adds “knowledge, resources and understanding of the issues at hand” to LCLAC.
Director of Community Relations Everett Mitchell countered Meyer and explained Blank’s actions as driven by a desire to create a more varied LCLAC membership.
“She was looking for a diversified student org,” Mitchell said. “You can have [representations from] undergrad, grad, professional schools. There’s a diversity of different types of students.”
Meyer also took issue with a change in the LCLAC bylaws that does not allow for a student to hold a leadership position higher than vice chair.
LCLAC members created a subcommittee to address specific concerns surrounding bylaw changes, which has since been dissolved, Meyer said.
Blank requested a meeting with this subcommittee Dec. 3 to discuss their concerns surrounding the structural changes, which require LCLAC to operate as an advisory committee rather than a shared governance group protected by state statute.
“She’s always been willing to meet,” Mitchell said. “She met with the chair, she met with the subcommittee that was looking at some changes for the structure.”
In her resignation letter, Meyer challenged several statements Blank made during the Dec. 3 meeting. Meyer quoted Blank as saying she had problems contacting former LCLAC Chair and UW-Madison student Lingran Kong and that Kong had “no interest in those conversations.”
Meyer wrote that she later reached out to Kong, who said Blank never tried to reach out to her, apart from one meeting at the beginning of the year.
Mitchell said the chancellor was disappointed in Meyer’s decision to resign and will continue to seek SLAC members’ and other students’ voices on LCLAC.
