Guidance on UW employee political campaign activity

As the state budget works through the Wisconsin Legislature, and we as citizens exercise our rights to engage in that process, please remember that UW employees may not use state resources including work time to engage in their own political advocacy. As stated in our UW System guidance on political campaign activity: "Individual employees should not use state work time or state resources to engage in political activities unless expressly designated with this responsibility on behalf of the employing institution." The AAUP statement on academic freedom and responsibility provides context for this caution as to the classroom: "[I]t is improper for an instructor persistently to intrude material which has no relation to the subject, or to fail to present the subject matter of his course as announced to the students and as approved by the faculty in their collective responsibility for the curriculum."