UW's Lyall says Chvala requested donations
10:37 PM 2/05/03
Karen Rivedal Higher education reporter

University of Wisconsin System President Katharine Lyall said Wednesday that Sen. Chuck Chvala repeatedly tried to pressure her for campaign cash for Democrats when she approached him for help on university business.

Chvala, D-Madison, faces a preliminary hearing Monday on 19 counts of extortion, misconduct in office and filing false campaign finance statements. The charges include other examples of so-called "pay-to-play"-type offenses, such as demanding campaign contributions from lobbyists in exchange for approving their legislation while he served as Senate majority leader.

But Lyall's comment Wednesday is the first suggestion that Chvala's alleged illicit power-broking extended to other state agencies - even, ironically, to the university, which traditionally has been considered a natural ally of the Democratic Party.

But Lyall said Chvala didn't think that friendship should come for free, in what she described as a "recurring theme" over Chvala's six years in leadership.

"He did on several occasions indicate to me that he thought the university should be contributing more," Lyall said. "It wasn't clear from those conversations whether he meant 'university' to mean the institution as a whole or me as an individual."

In either case, Lyall said she always refused Chvala.

"I just told him that the university had no way of playing that game," Lyall said. "It was not a long conversation. And as far as our faculty and others go, what donations they make are their business. We certainly don't ask them about it."

In court papers, Chvala's lawyers have suggested that people may have misunderstood Chvala's alleged requests, and the gray area between what he actually said and what people did in response is expected to be an issue of contention in his upcoming trial.

But Lyall said there was little doubt in her mind that when Chvala said the university should be "contributing more," he didn't mean it in a teamwork way.

"It was pretty clear," Lyall said. "I know that he was unhappy in times past that the Democrats in his view weren't getting enough contributions from the university."

Lyall also indicated that Chvala's requests for contributions made things uncomfortable between the university and the Legislature, which has considerable influence over university finances. The System gets about $1 billion, or 31 percent of its annual budget, from the state. "It's clear that (asking for contributions) is inappropriate, particularly in the case of the university, which has no way of responding to it," Lyall said.

Chvala and his attorney did not return calls for comment Wednesday.