With Chancellor Biddy Martin’s departure to Amherst following the New Badger Partnership fiasco, UW System picked a familiar face to serve as Interim Chancellor. This would be David Ward, who previously had the top job more than a decade ago and retired after a series of tumultous events surrounding the university’s involvement in sweatshop labor.
From the perspective of unions, community activists and progressive and marginalized students, the story of any Chancellor is going to be a combative one, more or less. It’s simply the nature of power relations. This was, of course, the case with the curiously named Chancellor “Biddy,” whose privatization efforts were vociferously opposed by pro-justice forces in the state.
But David Ward’s tenure (1993-2000) was heated even by the typical standards. The 1990’s witnessed a surge in campus and union activism against sweatshop labor, and UW-Madison was a leader in this fight. Following a 97-hour sit-in in February 1999, Chancellor Ward agreed to establish a shared governance committee to advise the implementation of stricter work force standards in the manufacture of all UW apparel. However, promises were quickly broken and the joint student-staff committee was largely sidelined. Later in the year, Chancellor Ward signed onto the Fair Labor Association (FLA), an organization designated to monitor workplace conditions, despite student objections. As one activist stated, “FLA is a sham. It is corporate-controlled.” Students had instead wanted UW-Madison to join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), which was free of corporate influence and offered more independent monitoring.
In February 2000, the movement’s energy culminated in another sit-in, this one including student government leaders and local elected officials. The demands initially included that the university withdraw from the FLA and join the WRC. They were later expanded to include a dropping of all punitive charges against the protesters and democratic changes in the university’s decision-making structure, among others.
The sit-in began on a Wednesday and, early on, Chancellor Ward made something of a vague commitment to look into joining the WRC. He promised to meet with activists on the next Monday and, as of Saturday night, the administration was promising that no arrests would be made. However, on early Sunday morning, riot police stormed Bascom Hall and arrested 54 people. Seven students had U-locked themselves in the Chancellor’s office, which were cut off with electric saws by the cops. One U-locked student said, “It was horrifying, they had to put wet towels on our heads to prevent the sparks from starting us on fire.”
In all, the outrage surrounding Chancellor Ward’s broken promises and behavior surrounding the protests prompted outcries from the community. Even the Badger Herald, hardly a bastion of left-wing thought, condemned the Chancellor’s actions (hat-tip to former Editor Jason Smathers):
The students and community members who protested the University of Wisconsin’s ties to sweatshop labor by staging a nonviolent sit-in at Bascom Hall should be exonerated. They should also be applauded for their dedication, diligence and commitment to victims of sweatshop labor.
Instead they are being punished by the university and its administration. Once again, Ward has turned his back on those he is supposed to represent, listen to and nurture. The protesters claim Ward has consistently gone back on his word; they are right. Ward’s conduct during the four-day peaceful protest is consistent with a documented history of complacency and non-action on student-endorsed policies regarding sweatshop labor…
…Instead, the protesters were sent to jail because they were trying to improve the moral standards of the university. Ward may be sincere in his stated commitments into investigating the Workers’ Rights Consortium. However, the protesters correct suspicions mandated that they continue the protest. It was their only means of invoking change in the university’s sweatshop policies because the administration had continually failed them.
Regardless of Chancellor Ward’s treachery, the activists scored a major victory in forcing the university to join the WRC. What’s more, all of the charges against the arrested protesters were dropped after a high-profile campaign on their behalf. The campaign received support from the Daily Cardinal, Badger Herald, Capital Times and letters in the Wisconsin State Journal.
For Chancellor Ward, the fallout was too much to endure; the very next month, he announced he would be stepping down in January 2001. These were the circumstances surrounding his departure more than a decade ago.
