It’s easy to say that you believe in your values, but much harder to put them into practice.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents found out just how hard it was when faced with a tough decision last week. The state legislature offered a deal to provide money for pay raises for UW employees, provide $200 million toward an engineering building at UW-Madison, and renovate residence halls at UW-Platteville — about a $1 billion investment across the system.
It sounds like a great deal, but the strings attached required freezing the hiring of diversity positions, eliminating a program designed to recruit diverse faculty, shifting 43 diversity positions to “student success,” and creating a position on conservative political thought.
So, is the system committed to diversity, or not? The regents voted (9-8) to reject the deal.
It’s easy to put values on posters and the website but a much tougher thing to live them, especially with serious consequences that impact thousands of people. But values are meant to be guideposts for the hard calls and I applaud the regents for honoring theirs.
Are you as clear about what you stand for and what you’re willing to defend? The time to answer that isn’t when you’re having to choose which way to go.
Source: Wisconsin regents reject deal on DEI, building The Associated Press in the Telegraph Herald, December 10, 2023.
