June 26, 2009

Dear President Riley,

On behalf of the leaders of the faculty senate at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse,
I am writing to express our thoughts and concerns on the UW-System furlough planning
process. On Wednesday, we were informed about a draft of a UW-System furlough policy
which includes specific requirements on when faculty are allowed to take furlough days.
While we strongly support the protection of the teaching mission of the institution, we
also support shared governance. We believe that faculty and staff should be allowed to
work with students to make a balanced decision on how best to implement furloughs on
our campus.

It has been the history of the UW-System to allow each campus to have autonomy in
many areas. We believe that the implementation of furlough days should be one of these
areas. While we may ultimately choose to support some restriction of the use of
instructional days for furloughs, there should be a level of local autonomy in determining
what is best for our students, our faculty and our staff when it comes to the
implementation of the furlough plan. This implementation should clearly reflect the
reduction of work that accompanies the reduction in pay due to furlough. As was
recommended by our full Faculty Senate at its meeting on May 14, 2009, we strongly
support flexibility and shared governance in this process. Therefore, we respectfully ask
that you allow the faculty, in consultation with students and staff, to determine how their
furlough days will be allocated.

Sincerely,

Members of the 08-09 and 09-10 UW-La Crosse Faculty Senate Executive Committees

Rebecca L. LeDocq, 09-10 Chair, 08-09 Vice-Chair

Adrienne Loh, 09-10 Vice-Chair

Kerrie Hoar, 09-10 Secretary

Joe Heim, 08-09 Chair

Susan Crutchfield, 08-09 Secretary

Brian Udermann, 08-09 At-Large