Friends are in a daze. No one can believe the great University of Wisconsin, our finest institution and the glue holding this state together, is in real danger of becoming a second-tier university. They know the reality – as goes the university, so goes Wisconsin.
The University of Wisconsin, known throughout the world for research, innovation, academic freedom and a world view of education, was described in the 1919 autobiography of Bob La Follette, former governor and U.S. senator. He wrote: “It is difficult, indeed, to overestimate the part which the university has played in the Wisconsin revolution – a sense that somehow the state and the university were intimately related, and that they should be of mutual service.”
…without a champion fighting for the university in the governor’s office, all is in danger of being lost. The governor and the lobbyists’ Legislature are now playing chicken with our children’s futures. “I can cut more than you can” is the game. And, of course, the mantra of “I will not raise taxes” rises above the din of fundraising.