Gov. Walker vetoes Wisconsin journalism center eviction attempt

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism will live to report another day on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker vetoed an attempt by his state’s Republican lawmakers to evict the nonprofit, nonpartisan center from its university offices when he signed the state budget into law Sunday. The budget provision would have forced the center, which occasionally collaborates on stories with Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television, to leave campus and cease all collaborations with university staff.

Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he believed arrangements between the university and other organizations should be addressed by the UW Board of Regents, not lawmakers.

“If there’s going to be a policy about those sorts of shared agreements or shared arrangements, that should be set by the regents and it shouldn’t be set specific to just this particular program,” he told the paper.

In a statement Sunday, the center thanked Walker while announcing the creation of a new education fund to support its student internship program. WCIJ takes on paid student interns as part of the same resource-sharing agreement that grants the center campus offices and access to journalism faculty.