Students gathered in the hallway outside Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office in Bascom Hall Friday to urge the University of Wisconsin?s chief executive to plot an alternate course for the school?s future.
Critics of a plan to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison off from the rest of the UW System believe they are gaining traction as lawmakers express their doubts, but UW-Madisons chancellor says she remains confident.
This Monday, in a not-at-all out of character message, Biddy Martin tweeted ?@alison1690,? ?I like the opportunity to learn about and communicate with students in a medium you find appealing.? The next day, our chancellor held an impromptu discussion with student protesters occupying Bascom Hall. Coincidence? Political savvy? Biddy being Biddy?
Since I graduated from the UW-Madison last May, my sense of attachment to the university has actually increased. Still, I couldnt help but feel like a poseur as I filled out a Wisconsin Alumni Association membership form online.
The Wisconsin Veterans? Affairs Board has asked legislators to make three major changes in the proposed state budget. It took issue with the governor?s plan to split UW Madison from the rest of the university system.
This Monday, in a not-at-all out of character message, Biddy Martin tweeted ?@alison1690,? ?I like the opportunity to learn about and communicate with students in a medium you find appealing.? The next day, our chancellor held an impromptu discussion with student protesters occupying Bascom Hall. Coincidence? Political savvy? Biddy being Biddy?
UW-Madison students showed their displeasure over a proposed split of the main campus from the UW system by staging a sit-in in Bascom Hall Tuesday afternoon outside of Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office.
The chancellor met with about 100 students and staff for about 90 minutes at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, talking about the New Badger Partnership, a plan to give UW-Madison “public authority” status by splitting it from the other schools in the system.
A group of more than 60 students convinced Biddy Martin to come out of her Bascom Hall office Tuesday afternoon to chat about the state budget and future of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With five members of the UW Police Department looking on, the students and UW-Madison chancellor held a sometimes tense but mostly friendly conversation in a first-floor hallway.
Republican leaders of the Legislature?s budget-writing committee indicated Tuesday that they will break with Gov. Scott Walker on some parts of his two-year spending plan, including removing the requirement and money for local recycling efforts and changing the popular SeniorCare prescription drug program. They spoke before the Joint Finance Committee began taking votes on changes to Walker?s first budget. Committee co-chair Robin Vos (R-Racine) has said it was “highly unlikely” the committee will go along with Walker?s plan to break the Madison campus off from the UW System. That issue has divided both the Madison campus and the university system, with other campuses and UW President Kevin Reilly arguing against it. They, and some lawmakers, have argued that all 14 four-year campuses in the system should have the same autonomy that Walker is proposing for Madison. Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin has argued strenuously for the plan, saying it was necessary for the flagship campus to deal with a $125 million cut Walker is proposing — half of the $250 million cut Walker wants for the entire university system.
MADISON (WKOW)–Police at the University of Wisconsin were called to Bascom Hall on Tuesday evening after a group of protesters refused to leave the building.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison students and campus community members are engaging in a sit-in at Bascom Hall to protest the idea of splitting UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System.
On opposite ends of State Street, two student groups with radically different viewpoints will voice their opinions today about the proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System. At Bascom Hall at 1 p.m., students will protest the budget proposal to make UW-Madison into a public authority. The group, including members of the Student Labor Action Coalition, will hold a mock auction to signify what they say is a handover of the university to private special interests. Bascom Hall is where UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin?s office is located. About a mile away, at the state Capitol, students in favor the proposal will lobby legislators, said Jon Alfuth, a coordinator of Students for the New Badger Partnership.
Members of the Legislature?s budget-writing committee have signaled they?re approaching information overload when it comes to the proposed separation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System. Is there a way, key lawmakers have asked, to construct a phased plan for giving the university more freedom to run its own affairs?
Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.
While opposition to the use of animals in research has gained momentum in Madison in recent years, there has been little change involving the use of monkeys and other animals in scientific studies.The efforts of local animal rights activists have been buoyed by high-profile cases at UW-Madison, where two federal agencies found violations of animal care requirements and a researcher was suspended over her treatment of monkeys in 2009. Last year, a UW-Madison committee approved a statement essentially saying research is ethical given local and federal oversight. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin called the use of animals in scientific research “indispensable, because of its life-saving benefits to human health,” saying, “Wisconsin would not be the leader in the stem-cell universe without animal research, nor would stem cell research anywhere hold the promise it now does.”
Last week was bad for the New Badger Partnership?s prospects in the state Legislature. Reps. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Robin Vos, R-Burlington, each said they had doubts that the University of Wisconsin-Madison will garner the votes to split from the UW System, casting a pall over Chancellor Biddy Martin?s hard-won successes thus far.
MADISON WKOW — A leading Republican lawmaker says there is not enough support among legislators to pass Governor Scott Walker?s proposal to split off Madison from the rest of the UW system, but UW chancellor Biddy Martin remains confident the split will go through.
….Chancellor Martin gave a passionate plea to the Madison Rotary Club (Wednesday). She says UW Madison is one of the top research universities in the world and unique with in the UW system.
Dear Editor: The danger of the New Badger Partnership can be found in the coded language of University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin. The NBP would literally make the UW ?open for business.?
As uncertainty surrounding Chancellor Biddy Martin?s proposed Badger Partnership continues to grow, members of the university?s administration and University of Wisconsin Foundation leadership have already begun making provisions to use many of the university?s proposed flexibilities to increase fundraising earnings for UW.
The proposal to split UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System should be taken out of the budget and the state Legislature should instead work on a separate bill to give all UW System campuses flexibility, said Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater.
Lawmakers expressed doubt this week that Gov. Scott Walker?s budget proposal to split UW-Madison from the University of Wisconsin System has the support to move forward.
“I think its highly unlikely that the Legislature at this time is ready to grant that authority,” said Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, co-chair of the state Legislature?s powerful budget committee.
While differing opinions bombard the state concerning the New Badger Partnership, some UW-Madison students have formed a group to show their support for the proposed change to the UW system.
Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, and a co-chairman of the Legislature?s budget committee, said on Upfront with Mike Gousha on Sunday that Gov. Walker?s vision to spin off UW-Madison from the rest of the University of Wisconsin System may be too big “to digest in one budget cycle.” “I am positive that we are going to give some additional flexibility, but probably not go all the way to allow Madison to spin off and set its own tuition and all the things without more oversight.”
(This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.)
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin looked out at the room of faculty and explained once again why she wants to break the state?s flagship university away from the University of Wisconsin System. But this time, she went off script.
“If you feel like you can?t get behind this, you just need to let me know,” she said at the end of a two-hour Faculty Senate meeting this month. “Because, you know what? I?m tired. If I?m out there completely on my own, I need to know that so that I can make the choices that will be best for the university.”
MADISON, Wis. — Critics of a plan to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison off from the rest of the UW System believe they are gaining traction as lawmakers express their doubts, but UW-Madison?s chancellor says she remains confident.
Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Scott Walker are an odd pair pushing to give UW-Madison autonomy.
When UW-Madison released some emails of professor William Cronon to the state Republican Party earlier this month following a much-hyped open records request, the university withheld correspondence with students, citing federal privacy laws.
“We are excluding records involving students because they are protected under FERPA,” UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin wrote to the campus community in explaining why some of Cronon?s emails were not given to the state GOP.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates granted $4 million to 19 projects Tuesday in its third and final round of funding. The funding includes grants for faculty, student service and academic support projects.
Two years and $16 million later, University of Wisconsin officials announced the final round of Madison Initiative for Undergraduates funding decisions Tuesday.
** The new Union South will celebrate its grand opening on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon on Friday.
** UW-Madison announced Tuesday how it plans to use $4 million raised through its Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a program championed by Chancellor Biddy Martin and funded through a supplemental tuition charge.
The future of UW-Madison?s authority model grows hazier as Chancellor Biddy Martin finds her brainchild gridlocked between UW System officials and the Wisconsin state Legislature. As evidenced by her e-mail sent to UW-Madison students last Thursday, Martin?s attempts to implement the New Badger Partnership?a plan to increase UW-Madison?s flexibility through the establishment of a public authority model that would break the university from the UW System?are growing increasingly desperate. Although Martin earned the support of Gov. Scott Walker in his proposed biennial budget, the idea of Wisconsin?s most prestigious and economically viable research institution stripping away from the UW System has sister universities and the Board of Regents disconcerted.
The future of UW-Madison?s authority model grows hazier as Chancellor Biddy Martin finds her brainchild gridlocked between UW System officials and the Wisconsin state Legislature. As evidenced by her e-mail sent to UW-Madison students last Thursday, Martin?s attempts to implement the New Badger Partnership?a plan to increase UW-Madison?s flexibility through the establishment of a public authority model that would break the university from the UW System?are growing increasingly desperate.
Monday?s article on the new Union South describes it all too accurately as an opulent playground. This $95 million extravaganza was approved by a slim percentage of the student body in an election so rigged by the administration it would have made Stalin blush. UW-Madison?s potentates have decreed that Memorial Union, which already qualifies as a palace by any reasonable standard, will also be “improved” to the tune of millions.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin is asking for back-up support on the plan to split the university from the rest of the UW System. She sent a letter for faculty, staff and students encouraging them to reach out to lawmakers in support of the proposal, called the New Badger Partnership. But the co-president of the Teaching Assistants? Association — which opposes the controversial plan — questioned the chancellor?s message.
Chancellor Biddy Martin sent an email to members of the campus community on Wednesday urging those who support public authority status for UW-Madison — as outlined in Gov. Scott Walker?s 2011-13 budget proposal — to “speak out as individuals, citizens and taxpayers.”
At Monday?s UW-Madison Faculty Senate meeting at Bascom Hall, Martin said she was getting weary pressing for this proposal on her own, and asked for more backing from faculty. She added that if people on campus want no part of public authority status, they also need to let her know.
Chancellor Biddy Martin presented a compromise between the New Badger Partnership and the Board of Regents? Wisconsin Idea Partnership that would provide the UW System more flexibilities while maintaining public authority status for UW-Madison.
After University of Wisconsin System representatives expressed support for a new plan to keep the Madison campus within the System, the UW-Madison chancellor proposed an addition to the budget bill that would provide administrative flexibilities to all campuses while maintaining the public authority status for the campus.
Members of the University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate weighed a new approach to funding for the university under the public authority model and approved a resolution in support of academic freedom during a meeting Monday.
…Walker is mugging Wisconsin?s educational tradition. He has proposed cuts of nearly $1 billion in state aid to local school districts while capping their levels of taxation. Apparently he is supporting the idea of spinning the university off from the state system, largely because he now will include all university employees as part of his ?250,000 new jobs.? The state and municipalities have yet to see the impact of his program on recruiting and retaining good teachers. The outcome is all too apparent.
Life goes on. The grass is sprouting on the trampled grounds at the state Capitol, the Legislature is in recess and the governor wants nothing less than a do-over of the 20th century. Meanwhile, killing the bargaining rights of teachers, providing a one-sided grievance and disciplinary process and reducing their incomes apparently are vital parts of the governor?s plan to open the state for ?business.?
(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus. This column first appeared on Truthdig.com.)
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin on Friday released some of the emails requested of a history professor by the state Republican Party but said she is withholding others that “fall within the orbit of academic freedom.” Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state Republican Party, had sought the emails under the state?s open records law after professor Bill Cronon wrote an essay on his blog critical of the role the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council has played in pushing anti-union legislation in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin announced Friday that she will release some of the emails from a history professor requested by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, but she is withholding others that “fall within the orbit of academic freedom.”
University of Wisconsin System officials provided new details of their proposal to gain flexibilities as a united entity in a Joint Finance Committee meeting Thursday, a plan the Madison chancellor has said could pose a risk to the excellence of the system?s flagship campus.
UW-Madison received an open records request from Stephan Thompson, deputy executive director of the state?s Republican Party, for email records of history professor Bill Cronon two weeks ago. On Friday, Chancellor Biddy Martin revealed in a letter to the campus community that the university will release those emails.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus urged state lawmakers Thursday to support Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal spinning it off from the university system. The future of the university system is one of the largest and most divisive issues in Walker?s budget. UW System President Kevin Reilly argued for giving the other campuses more autonomy but keeping the system intact. “I will be the first to agree that these flexibilities are important for UW-Madison,” Reilly said. “They are, but they are equally important to all other UW campuses.” Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, who has pushed more than a year to get more freedom for Madison, said the campus needs a model that will allow it to thrive. “We?re in a race and were tired of listening to words and we?re tired of the same structures that aren?t getting us to where we need to go,” Martin said.
MADISON (WKOW) — More authority for all schools in the UW System. That?s what system president Kevin Reilly called for Thursday morning.
“This is not the time to break up a well-running UW System,” Reilly said. The UW System President renewed his call for greater control at the university level – proposed in the Wisconsin Ideas Partnership. Reilly is opposed to Walker?s plan — supported by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin — to spin off the Madison campus from the rest of the system.
Members of the University of Wisconsin student government said Monday they are deliberating the best procedure to appoint a student representative to the new governing board for the period after the campus becomes a public authority.
In a public forum Monday, the University of Wisconsin dean of students and several deans of individual schools said university operation is hampered by a human resources structure that does not fit a world-class institution.
As in every other state budget cycle, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly will appear this week before the Joint Finance Committee to defend state funding for the system. During more typical times, most of Reilly?s angst would be focused on the $250 million in cuts proposed in Gov. Scott Walker?s 2011-13 biennial budget, half of which will be absorbed by UW-Madison.
A thorough airing is needed before any legislative action is taken on a plan to keep the University of Wisconsin System united while still allowing the flexibilities sought in a proposal to split off its flagship campus.
When UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin says she wants her university to set sail from the constraints of the UW System, I say bon voyage! Respected public universities such as UW-Madison increasingly have sought status and brand-recognition as they prey on that bizarre middle-class American fetish for higher education that assumes a student?s choice of college is possibly the most important choice of his life. Despite Martin?s assurances to the contrary, a standalone UW-Madison would be more expensive and harder for state residents to get into, while benefiting from the hype among out-of-state and well-heeled students that expense and exclusivity confer.
A thorough airing is needed before any legislative action is taken on a plan to keep the University of Wisconsin System united while still allowing the flexibilities sought in a proposal to split off its flagship campus.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor said if her school is allowed to spin off from the rest of the UW System she won?t recommend a tuition increase of more than 8.5 percent next year. Biddy Martin said the in-state rate hike would match what Madison students absorbed in the past year. She said grants would cover students from lower-income families.
Chancellor Biddy Martin just can?t catch a break when it comes to the New Badger Partnership. After she attracted support from major student leaders across campus, Martin was left with the daunting task of capturing the heart of one of Wisconsin?s most intransigent politicians to date?Gov. Scott Walker. Fortunately for Martin, the idea of the partnership was established even before Walker came to office. And to Martin?s delight, Walker released a 2011- ?13 biennial budget containing all the statutory language needed to grant UW-Madison more autonomy under?much to the UW System?s surprise and dismay?a public authority model.
Budget cuts are flying around mercilessly these days. Madison is facing a 13-percent budget cut in Scott Walker?s proposed budget bill and needs to find ways to absorb those costs without just passing them on to students. Public authority status, included in the budget, is one proposal aiming to do just that, but Chancellor Biddy Martin is looking for other cost-reductions as well. This week, the administration announced a contract with Huron Consulting Group to look for ways to improve efficiency on campus and save the university money.
Chancellor Biddy Martin just can?t catch a break when it comes to the New Badger Partnership. After she attracted support from major student leaders across campus, Martin was left with the daunting task of capturing the heart of one of Wisconsin?s most intransigent politicians to date?Gov. Scott Walker.
After all the smoke clears from the budget battles, we may find that, other than Gov. Scott Walker?s astounding move to crush public sector unions, no proposal will have as profound an effect on the future of the state as Walker?s takeover of the UW-Madison.
Thirteen University of Wisconsin chancellors asked state lawmakers Wednesday to support a new plan that would give all their schools more autonomy but wouldn?t spin off UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System.
UW-Madison, please don?t go. That?s the gist of a letter to state legislators Wednesday, signed by all of the chancellors in the University of Wisconsin System ? except UW-Madison?s Chancellor Biddy Martin.
UW-Madison is embarking on an external study to look for areas where the university could function more cheaply, effectively and efficiently. There are no cost estimates yet for the contract that university leaders signed with Huron Consulting Group earlier this month. Instead, the company will bill the university on an hourly basis, giving the university flexibility on how much it wants to spend, said Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison signed off on a deal earlier this month which asks the Huron Consulting Group to study if the university is running as efficiently and effectively as possible. There is no estimate for how much this project might cost the university at this time, said Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison?s vice chancellor for administration. However, university administrators told faculty leaders in September that such an endeavor could cost upwards of $3 million. Taxpayer dollars will not be used to pay for the project, said Bazzell.
