Wisconsin residents think the University of Wisconsin System is overpriced, overstaffed and out of step with ordinary people, according to a survey by a Madison firm that is the first of its kind in nearly a decade.
More than 70% of those polled said they thought “UW campuses spend too much money on things they don’t need instead of… educating students.”
Wood Communications Group conducted the survey quietly last fall as a first step toward building support for the UW System in the business community. The firm has used the results to rally university and business leaders ever since, saying that more needs to be done to improve the system’s public image. But in recent weeks, the survey might have backfired. Word of it has spread to critics of the UW System, who view it as justification for attacks.