University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley attended a fund-raiser hosted by state Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield, Thursday night in an appearance that is drawing heat from one of the state’s major campaign finance watchdog groups.

Wiley, who attended the reception at the Madison Club for about 10 to15 minutes prior to hosting a diversity forum in Bascom Hall, met with officials from the information technology development and venture capital industries at the event. These contacts are important to the university, according to Wiley’s aide Casey Nagy.

But Common Cause of Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck said he was “extremely surprised” Wiley was the featured guest of the partisan event. While not unlawful, the attendance of a UW official at a partisan campaign fund-raiser is a conflict of interest, according to Heck.

“This is the first time that a UW chancellor has been the guest at a campaign fund-raising event,” Heck said. “Either Chancellor Wiley got bad advice or he just really made the wrong decision about this.”

Common Cause has been leading an effort to halt campaign fund-raising while the state budget is being considered by the state Legislature. The government watchdog group believes it is a conflict of interest for legislators to raise funds during this period because campaign contributions may affect how state taxpayer money will be spent.

Heck said the incident could set a precedent because now other legislators may invite Wiley to their own campaign fund-raisers.

“It’s just a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope,” Heck added.

But Nagy said Wiley’s involvement with the fund-raiser had nothing to do with the ongoing budget process, and that the university is constantly in contact with legislators in the Capitol.

“The chancellor meets with legislators on the budget all the time; we’re down there [at the Capitol] all the time talking about the budget,” Nagy said.

The real issue with the fund-raiser, according to Nagy, was Kanavas’s invitation, which implied Wiley would play a featured role in the fund-raiser, not the cameo appearance the chancellor actually made.

“We weren’t consulted with how it was presented,” Nagy said. “It appears to make a big deal about the fact the chancellor is in attendance. The senator has acknowledged that it could have been crafted better.”

Though Heck said he agrees it is important UW builds relations with legislators to become more involved in state politics, he believes attending a campaign fund-raising event is not the way this goal should be met. Instead, legislators should be invited to speak at Bascom Hall or the chancellor should speak to a lawmaker in his or her office about issues affecting the university, such as UW System cuts and tuition hikes.

“The UW System … ought to be in the forefront of demanding that campaign money not play a role in the decision-making process,” Heck said. “We need to … return Wisconsin to the state it use to be when issues decided [votes], not money.”