President Darnell Cole and the MATC teachers’ union are at war. Cole says he is trying to hold the line on staff salaries and benefits. The union says Cole is a bad president who is wrecking the school.
In February, the union released a survey of staff, which gave Cole an average grade of D for his leadership of the college. The survey, to which 47% of full-time faculty responded, “demonstrate(s) conclusively that Dr. Cole’s leadership is failing this college and the Milwaukee community,” declared Michael Rosen , the union’s president.
Rosen also charged that staff members had complained Cole was ignoring the educational mission of the college and was solely concerned with hiring cronies and engaging in public relations. The MATC board, Rosen contended, should either change leadership, presumably by firing Cole, or force him to change his leadership style.
But Jim Gribble , a spokesperson for Cole, contends that the survey’s timing, during a period when the union is negotiating for a new contract, might explain the results. In union newsletters, Rosen has charged that Cole’s proposals for this round of contract talks would “destroy almost everything the union has spent decades building for this college.”
One thing the union has built is a pretty good level of pay. Take Rosen himself. A public records request shows he earned $118,425 last year. Not bad for an economics instructor at a two-year college.
The standard load for MATC teachers is five courses or 15 hours of teaching a week (plus preparation time and office hours). Rosen teaches an “overload” of courses during the year and also earns more by teaching in the summer. Over the years, contractual negotiations have jacked up the pay for “above load” work and for pay to part-time instructors. In essence, MATC pays the same for part-time teachers as it would for full-timers to take on more classes, which leaves no incentive to hire part-timers.
The end result is a system where the average full-time instructor earns $91,000. All those above this average are teaching above load. On average, this leaves an MATC instructor earning about $23,000 more than a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor and about $13,000 more than a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.
Union representatives and teachers have written me to suggest that this is an unfair, apples-to-oranges comparison. But would taxpayers really want a system where UW professors, a group including some of the country’s top scholars, earn less than instructors at a two-year college?
Union sympathizers have also suggested that some of their instructors are professionals in fields like nursing who could earn a higher salary in the field. Perhaps, but would the benefits be as good?
Over the last decade and more, Chvala and Jensen became the masters of this system, as the Legislature got more and more partisan and legislative races ever more hotly contested. They were two of the brightest minds in the Legislature, master strategists who adroitly combined politics and policy. Jensen seemed smoother, while Chvala was seen as more abrasive, a junkyard dog who antagonized many. But Jensen had the key support of Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson . Chvala was surrounded by Republican power, yet through sheer tenacity and meanness, he kept the Democrats in power in the Senate for years.
Defenders of legislators charged with caucus-related crimes argue that everyone did it. This is what Jensen tried to argue in the courtroom (even while suggesting he didn’t know much about what was going on). It is what Peterson argued in his feature for this magazine. Neither Chvala nor Jensen was going to unilaterally disarm. In a fiercely competitive system, they couldn’t afford not to use the caucus workers as methodically as the opposition.
But both did have choices to make, and often. They chose to continue serving in a corrupt system, they chose to lead that system and they chose to maximize its impact. It’s a system that, over the last few decades, cost taxpayers untold millions. Perhaps worse, we were paying for a system of cronies who often chose the winning legislative candidates for us by rewarding and promoting and raising campaign funds for anointed insiders.
There have to be consequences for maintaining such a corrupt system or legislators will inevitably cut corners and citizens will ultimately lose confidence in government. That’s why Jensen and Chvala had to be prosecuted, and sadly, that’s what history will most remember about them.
A Slap at “Snapshots”
Milwaukee Magazine’s February Pressroom column documented the numerous times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Crocker Stephenson left out the full criminal record of subjects he profiled in his “Snapshots” column. The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review picked up on this controversy and awarded a “dart” to the JS for poor journalism.
“That lonely guy in the wheelchair trying poignantly to engage passersby in a friendly conversation,” the CJR piece noted, “has in fact been known around town for years as ‘the wheelchair pervert,’ with a record of complaints against him as long as your arm for, among other unpleasantries, harassing young women.… Although Milwaukee Magazine … assumed in its article that many of the omissions were due to lazy reporting, Stephenson and his editors say that is not the case. On the contrary, the columnist tells us, the omissions come from his deliberate dismissal of inconvenient facts ‘that do not further the narrative’ and might discourage compassion. Details, schmetails, as long as the stories warm the heart.”
Defenders of legislators charged with caucus-related crimes argue that everyone did it. This is what Jensen tried to argue in the courtroom (even while suggesting he didn’t know much about what was going on). It is what Peterson argued in his feature for this magazine. Neither Chvala nor Jensen was going to unilaterally disarm. In a fiercely competitive system, they couldn’t afford not to use the caucus workers as methodically as the opposition.
But both did have choices to make, and often. They chose to continue serving in a corrupt system, they chose to lead that system and they chose to maximize its impact. It’s a system that, over the last few decades, cost taxpayers untold millions. Perhaps worse, we were paying for a system of cronies who often chose the winning legislative candidates for us by rewarding and promoting and raising campaign funds for anointed insiders.
There have to be consequences for maintaining such a corrupt system or legislators will inevitably cut corners and citizens will ultimately lose confidence in government. That’s why Jensen and Chvala had to be prosecuted, and sadly, that’s what history will most remember about them.
A Slap at “Snapshots”
Milwaukee Magazine’s February Pressroom column documented the numerous times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Crocker Stephenson left out the full criminal record of subjects he profiled in his “Snapshots” column. The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review picked up on this controversy and awarded a “dart” to the JS for poor journalism.
“That lonely guy in the wheelchair trying poignantly to engage passersby in a friendly conversation,” the CJR piece noted, “has in fact been known around town for years as ‘the wheelchair pervert,’ with a record of complaints against him as long as your arm for, among other unpleasantries, harassing young women.… Although Milwaukee Magazine … assumed in its article that many of the omissions were due to lazy reporting, Stephenson and his editors say that is not the case. On the contrary, the columnist tells us, the omissions come from his deliberate dismissal of inconvenient facts ‘that do not further the narrative’ and might discourage compassion. Details, schmetails, as long as the stories warm the heart.”
Defenders of legislators charged with caucus-related crimes argue that everyone did it. This is what Jensen tried to argue in the courtroom (even while suggesting he didn’t know much about what was going on). It is what Peterson argued in his feature for this magazine. Neither Chvala nor Jensen was going to unilaterally disarm. In a fiercely competitive system, they couldn’t afford not to use the caucus workers as methodically as the opposition.
But both did have choices to make, and often. They chose to continue serving in a corrupt system, they chose to lead that system and they chose to maximize its impact. It’s a system that, over the last few decades, cost taxpayers untold millions. Perhaps worse, we were paying for a system of cronies who often chose the winning legislative candidates for us by rewarding and promoting and raising campaign funds for anointed insiders.
There have to be consequences for maintaining such a corrupt system or legislators will inevitably cut corners and citizens will ultimately lose confidence in government. That’s why Jensen and Chvala had to be prosecuted, and sadly, that’s what history will most remember about them.
A Slap at “Snapshots”
Milwaukee Magazine’s February Pressroom column documented the numerous times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Crocker Stephenson left out the full criminal record of subjects he profiled in his “Snapshots” column. The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review picked up on this controversy and awarded a “dart” to the JS for poor journalism.
“That lonely guy in the wheelchair trying poignantly to engage passersby in a friendly conversation,” the CJR piece noted, “has in fact been known around town for years as ‘the wheelchair pervert,’ with a record of complaints against him as long as your arm for, among other unpleasantries, harassing young women.… Although Milwaukee Magazine … assumed in its article that many of the omissions were due to lazy reporting, Stephenson and his editors say that is not the case. On the contrary, the columnist tells us, the omissions come from his deliberate dismissal of inconvenient facts ‘that do not further the narrative’ and might discourage compassion. Details, schmetails, as long as the stories warm the heart.”
Defenders of legislators charged with caucus-related crimes argue that everyone did it. This is what Jensen tried to argue in the courtroom (even while suggesting he didn’t know much about what was going on). It is what Peterson argued in his feature for this magazine. Neither Chvala nor Jensen was going to unilaterally disarm. In a fiercely competitive system, they couldn’t afford not to use the caucus workers as methodically as the opposition.
But both did have choices to make, and often. They chose to continue serving in a corrupt system, they chose to lead that system and they chose to maximize its impact. It’s a system that, over the last few decades, cost taxpayers untold millions. Perhaps worse, we were paying for a system of cronies who often chose the winning legislative candidates for us by rewarding and promoting and raising campaign funds for anointed insiders.
There have to be consequences for maintaining such a corrupt system or legislators will inevitably cut corners and citizens will ultimately lose confidence in government. That’s why Jensen and Chvala had to be prosecuted, and sadly, that’s what history will most remember about them.
A Slap at “Snapshots”
Milwaukee Magazine’s February Pressroom column documented the numerous times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Crocker Stephenson left out the full criminal record of subjects he profiled in his “Snapshots” column. The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review picked up on this controversy and awarded a “dart” to the JS for poor journalism.
“That lonely guy in the wheelchair trying poignantly to engage passersby in a friendly conversation,” the CJR piece noted, “has in fact been known around town for years as ‘the wheelchair pervert,’ with a record of complaints against him as long as your arm for, among other unpleasantries, harassing young women.… Although Milwaukee Magazine … assumed in its article that many of the omissions were due to lazy reporting, Stephenson and his editors say that is not the case. On the contrary, the columnist tells us, the omissions come from his deliberate dismissal of inconvenient facts ‘that do not further the narrative’ and might discourage compassion. Details, schmetails, as long as the stories warm the heart.”
Defenders of legislators charged with caucus-related crimes argue that everyone did it. This is what Jensen tried to argue in the courtroom (even while suggesting he didn’t know much about what was going on). It is what Peterson argued in his feature for this magazine. Neither Chvala nor Jensen was going to unilaterally disarm. In a fiercely competitive system, they couldn’t afford not to use the caucus workers as methodically as the opposition.
But both did have choices to make, and often. They chose to continue serving in a corrupt system, they chose to lead that system and they chose to maximize its impact. It’s a system that, over the last few decades, cost taxpayers untold millions. Perhaps worse, we were paying for a system of cronies who often chose the winning legislative candidates for us by rewarding and promoting and raising campaign funds for anointed insiders.
There have to be consequences for maintaining such a corrupt system or legislators will inevitably cut corners and citizens will ultimately lose confidence in government. That’s why Jensen and Chvala had to be prosecuted, and sadly, that’s what history will most remember about them.
A Slap at “Snapshots”
Milwaukee Magazine’s February Pressroom column documented the numerous times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Crocker Stephenson left out the full criminal record of subjects he profiled in his “Snapshots” column. The March/April issue of the Columbia Journalism Review picked up on this controversy and awarded a “dart” to the JS for poor journalism.
“That lonely guy in the wheelchair trying poignantly to engage passersby in a friendly conversation,” the CJR piece noted, “has in fact been known around town for years as ‘the wheelchair pervert,’ with a record of complaints against him as long as your arm for, among other unpleasantries, harassing young women.… Although Milwaukee Magazine … assumed in its article that many of the omissions were due to lazy reporting, Stephenson and his editors say that is not the case. On the contrary, the columnist tells us, the omissions come from his deliberate dismissal of inconvenient facts ‘that do not further the narrative’ and might discourage compassion. Details, schmetails, as long as the stories warm the heart.”
