According to a former University of Wisconsin campus dean, the proposed budget for the UW System is sending the wrong message to the global community.

Earlier this month, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted to cut the system’s budget by $250 million and reduce the power of faculty, staff and student groups. It also eliminated faculty tenure from state law, giving the Board of Regents control to set its own tenure policy.

Republican lawmakers said that the changes would provide the universities with flexibilities to better manage their money.

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank acknowledged that removing tenure is "not the disaster that some people want to portray." However, during a recent interview on "UpFront with Mike Gousha," Blank said that her top worry about tenure reform is the raiding of UW faculty.

Lake Superior State University President Tom Pleger said on Tuesday that all UW chancellors should be concerned about that prospect.

“This will have a significant impact on the entire system’s ability to recruit faculty and it will also result, I suspect, in other institutions stepping up their interest in recruiting faculty, administrators and staff from Wisconsin – and not just Madison, but across the board,” he said.

Pleger, a former dean at UW-Baraboo/Sauk County, mentioned that the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan-based LSSU has hired people from UW in the past and that people from UW continue to show up in its searches. He also noted that his colleagues at other Michigan universities have told him that they are seeing a greater number of Wisconsin applicants.

In addition, Pleger said he is worried about the changes to shared governance, which defines the mission, powers and decision-making processes for UW faculty, staff and students.

The UW is currently the only system in the country whose rules for governance are embedded in state law.

Pleger said that other states look to Wisconsin as a model on how to run a university system. In fact, he said he is working with staff and faculty to develop a shared governance structure at LSSU that borrows several aspects of the UW System.

He went on to say that the national and international community, which the UW often considers when recruiting top talent, is watching the budget situation "very closely," especially to see how watered down shared governance winds up.

"(Weakening shared governance) sends a message to the rest of the country and to the rest of the academic world that suggests Wisconsin is not pleased with its university system or perhaps not proud of it," Pleger said. "I think it’s one of the greatest assets that Wisconsin has."