University of Wisconsin system has 40 felons--including 4 academics--on the payroll

As I've commented before, I could focus this blog on only the craziness emitting from "higher" education and never run out of material.

An article today from Associated Press points out that after a system-wide audit of the University of Wisconsin campuses, 40 convicted felons are on staff at the various UW schools; 27 of them can be found at the flagship Madison campus.

The recent audit is in response to the disclosures last year that the University of Wisconsin was unable to fire three professors convicted of serious crimes. Two of the professors still received their paychecks after their convictions. One professor was convicted of the sexual assault of three young girls, another for stalking, the other for engaging in sexually explicit online convictions with a 14 year-old boy, as well as sending a naked picture of himself to the boy.

From the August 10, 2005 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Under a UW-Madison policy, the professors - whose convictions range from sexual assault to online dalliances with a minor boy and stalking - can't be fired solely because they've been found guilty in a court of law. The university must conduct its own investigation to determine whether there is cause for dismissal. The professors have the right to appeal a dismissal up through the university system and into state court, a process that can take years.

UW-Madison defends the policy, which is common at universities across the country and tied into the practice of granting certain professors lifetime employment

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Of the current felons employed by the University of Wisconsin, three of them are faculty members.

From today's AP article:

Two of the workers were convicted of homicide during the 1970s and have been on parole since the early 1990s.

Four employees were convicted of a total of five sexual assaults of a child.

There were 54 felonies committed by the 40 employees. Nine of them were considered violent. The nonviolent offenses included fraud and forgery, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, theft, and drug possession.

The report on felons is part of a larger review the Audit Bureau is conducting of UW System employment practices.

More tomorrow on Marathon Pundit about higher education, as I revisit, once again, DePaul University. March 1 is a bad day for them.

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