UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #308
PELISEK, F.J.

PELISEK, F. J. (1930- )
Undergraduate and Law Student; Member of Board of Regents
At UW: 1969-1977

Interviewed: 1985	
Series: Merger
Interviewer: Martin Dowling
Length: 2 hours

State of higher education in Wisconsin around 1970; Fred Harvey Harrington's failure to handle student rebellion; Failure of CCHE; Governor Patrick Lucey's motives regarding Merger and his tax-sharing redistribution plan; Narrow passage of Merger bill; Impressions of Harrington, John Weaver and Lucey; Merger Implementation Study Committee; Problems realizing efficiency potential of Merger; Weakness of recent boards of Regents.

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:25	Background to his appointment to board of regents in 1969.  Attitude toward higher education in Wisconsin at that time.  Harrington was shirking his responsibility to keep the Madison campus open rather than allow it to be taken over by students and faculty for political purposes.

00:04:05	FJP a member of CCHE; totally ineffective.  All members had very parochial view of educational institutions.  Question re claim that inequality existed between degrees given at different campuses.  Responded that some were merely high schools with ash trays.

00:08:08	FJP supported merger because thought it would be more efficient.  Thought merger was smoke screen put up by Lucey to divert attention from redistribution of tax sharing.  FJP claims the smoke screen worked.  This was Lucey's dominant motivation for sponsoring merger.  Explanation of tax redistribution plan, which is widely misunderstood.  Merger not his basic thrust. 

00:12:15	Question re FJP's political activity on merger.  Most of the lobbying done by Ody Fish.  FJP the only regent not opposed to merger.  Joint board meetings; Lavine, McNamara, and Mary Williams from WSU board in support of merger.  FJP's attitude was that merger should be investigated because CCHE was such a failure. 

00:15:17	Merger passed by one vote, not on its own merits.  A judgeship bought merger.  Question on Lucey's statement that Harrington could have stopped merger.  FJP claims Lucey was unduly complimenting his old friend, both of whom are "knee-jerk" liberals.  Comparison of Harrington and Weaver in their relationship to Lucey. 

00:17:41	Weaver's attitude toward WSU was one of disdain.  Weaver a product of Madison.  FJP and Weaver very close at the time.  Impressions of Weaver-Lucey relationship. 

00:20:40	Better work in the legislature could have stopped merger.  Board of regents was top quality, better than any group since.  Some very ineffective members on present board.  WSU board was very parochial, prone to log rolling, did very little decision making.

00:24:07	FJP's appointment to MISC.  Disappointed that he was not chairman of the board.  Solberg appointed, had been a strong opponent of merger, unlike FJP. 

00:26:30	Dealing with parochialism on merged board.  WSU people did not push for regional representation.  FJP did not regard WSU people as a powerful force during MISC period.  Not a factional organization.  Organization of the merged board was more factional.

00:28:55	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:28:59	Problems of organizing the merged board.  First board had 22 members.  Real problem was appointment of president, vice-president, and committee chairs.  Ego battles.

00:31:17	Story of appointment of Len Haas and his resignation.  Vice president of system was difficult problem.  Weaver not happy about being a system president; accepted Joe Klotsche at UWM, but did not like working with Ed Weidner at Green Bay. 

00:35:10	Weaver established conference of presidents of multi-campus systems.  Met with presidents of North Carolina, Texas, et al, in which FJP participated.  Common problem for all presidents was their distance from academic life. 

00:36:38	O'Neil a bad appointment, the result of a poor board.  He got no support from the board. 

00:38:00	Duty of MISC was to draft legislation.  The committee was too large (20 members) to function efficiently, so formed subcommittee.  Solberg was too busy with his small law firm to help write legislation.  Worked with Dave Hanson, Clara Penniman, some students, Burt Wagner.  Lucey was not involved at all, "could care less." 

00:41:45	Most important work was to preserve UW tradition of faculty governance and guarantee student rights.  The latter has gone to court.  George Molinaro and Walter Hollander demanded that only the legislature can close a campus. 

00:44:55	Work of crafting legislation. Student member, Marshall Wick, Brabin from UWM, not very important contributors.  FJP did the most work and the majority of the writing.  Campus autonomy was not a critical issue for the subcommittee. 

00:49:45	Example of the great diversity of quality of education between Oshkosh and Madison. 

00:51:30	MISC work was not significantly changed by the legislature.  Hollander and Molinaro defended it in the legislature. 

00:53:10	Question re post merger education budgets.  FJP was vice president and president of board in the period of austerity budgets. 

00:55:20	Problem of mission statements and elimination of graduate business program at Whitewater, which was strongly opposed by Byron Wackett, a vocal opponent of the University for 15 years. 

00:57:50	End of side. End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

00:57:54	Realizing efficiencies of merger an impossible task because every institution resisted the attempts to cut corners.  As late as FJP's second term as president of board, 1975, there was still an "us-them" attitude between WSU and UW institutions.  Percy and Smith overcame this problem in system administration.  Chancellors were also well coordinated by Weaver. 

01:03:59	UW never exercised its full potential in terms of legislative clout.  Hard to determine whether the Madison campus could have done better in the mid 1970s on its own.  Never exploited the Green Bay, Milwaukee, Parkside constituencies, alumni clubs, etc.

01:06:35	Problem of system administration location. 

01:07:30	Question re: performance of merged system.  Reduced unnecessary competition.  Problem is weak boards.  Not strong enough to implement controversial efficiencies; veterinary school one example.  Mentions Frank Horton of UWM, personal friend. 

01:12:30	End running by Eau Claire people in spring 1985 salary controversy was occasioned by a weak board.  Dreyfus and Earl have made very poor appointments. 

01:15:00	FJP claims closing Superior campus is politically feasible, but the present board does not have the guts.  Closing Medford was very difficult. 

01:18:48	Problem of faculty exodus from Madison could be solved by internal reallocation of funds.  This is unrealistic because "academia is a bastion of self-preservationists." 

01:20:49	End of interview.

END