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Category: Higher Education/System

Letter: Budget cuts put University of Wisconsin System in jeopardy

Wausau Daily Herald

I have had communications with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, the UW Marathon County Dean Keith Montgomery, a biophysics professor of UW-La Crosse and many others on the impact proposed state budget cuts will have on our currently outstanding UW System. Their universal opinion is that the cuts will seriously, in Blank’s words, “risk the investment that generations of Wisconsinites have made to create a highly ranked university in our state.”

Letter: Budget cuts devastating to UW-Madison campus

Oshkosh Northwestern

As a current undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Associated Students of Madison, the student association on campus, I am deeply concerned about the possible ramifications of Scott Walker’s proposed budget on students such as myself. When I was a junior in high school, I dreamed of going out-of-state for school. However, I realized that I could obtain the same caliber of education at an in-state price – at UW-Madison.

Republican Governors’ Shared Goals for Higher Ed: Accountability and Work-Force Preparation

Chronicle of Higher Education

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is proposing to cut $300-million from the state’s university system over the next two years. Across the Great Lakes, his fellow Republican governors in Michigan and Ohio are pushing for increases in their states’ higher-education spending. (Subscription required.)

UW System president offers performance-based model in exchange for guaranteed funding

WKOW TV

The president of the UW System told the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) Tuesday he is open to performance-based funding based on a set of certain criteria. “Graduation rates – both four-year and six-year, number of degrees granted – total degrees, STEM degrees, retention rates – first to second year,” Cross told JFC members, listing off a total of eight standards.

UW head Ray Cross: $300M cut is ‘too much and too fast’

Wisconsin State Journal

University of Wisconsin System president Ray Cross told the Legislature’s budget committee Tuesday that he endorses Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan to turn the 26-campus system into an independent public authority.But Cross told the committee that the governor’s plan to cut $300 million over two years beginning in July is “too much and too fast.”

Aceti: Those UW Folks Are Doing Research

Wall Street Journal

The editorial “Scott Walker’s School Days” Feb. 23 is misleading on at least two points. First, it states that, “the demonstrators even object to Mr. Walker’s suggestion that UW’s ‘Wisconsin idea’ mission include a goal ‘to develop human resources to meet the state’s workforce needs.’” In fact, the objection was to the removal of phrases including, “basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth” and “to extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campuses.” (Subscription required.)

Newly minted MBA? It’s the best job market in years

BBC News

Times are good at the Wisconsin School of Business.

In a positive sign for its newly minted graduates, job postings so far in 2015 are up 36% from the year before. What’s more, the Madison, Wisconsin-based university hosted more than 300 companies during a career fair in December, where recruiters competed for top talent. The school’s master of business administration programme expects the best results in years in placing graduating students in full-time jobs.

Other business schools are reporting similar upswings.

Concerns arise over Board of Regents power with UW System changes

Badger Herald

More information about the UW System public authority model was brought to light Thursday and further fueled a heated debate surrounding the potential shift to increased autonomy for system officials in exchange for decreased state funding. Quoted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of educational policy and sociology.

Forum ‘confronts campus rape,’ outlines actions UW should take

Badger Herald

Panelists at a campus-wide forum on ‘Confronting Campus Rape’ Monday said the University of Wisconsin System has failed to address the issue properly and called for policies which better protect victims of sexual assault. Quoted: Anne McClintock, professor of English and gender and women’s studies; Cecilia Klingele, assistant professor of law; Claudia Card, professor of philosophy

Budget panel explores effects of public authority model

Daily Cardinal

Although varying in political disposition and opinions on the budget cuts, members of the panel consisting of UW-Madison faculty and Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Derek Field agreed on the effects a public authority model would have on undergraduate education. Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of WISCAPE; Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of educational policy studies and sociology

UPDATE: Nearly 500 sign letter demanding that Ray Cross oppose Scott Walker’s plan to restructure the university

Capital Times

Five days after an open letter was posted online, the number of people at University of Wisconsin — now including not only faculty, but staff, students and alumi — demanding that UW System president Ray Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to restructure UW in his budget rose to 484. Some 88 of them were at, or graduated from UW-Madison, where faculty were scheduled Monday to vote on a resolution asking Cross to delay restructuring.

What Is the duty of public colleges? 

Huffington Post

In his recent budget proposal, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker sparked a national debate on whether institutions of higher learning should primarily focus on classroom teaching to promote workplace readiness or public service and conducting research with a global impact. As part of his proposal, Walker changed the language of the 100-year-old mission of the University of Wisconsin System UW, known as the “Wisconsin Idea,” removing the portion that calls for extending “knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campuses.”

UW-Madison chancellor comes under fire for comments about how she matches outside faculty offers

Inside Higher Education

The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison came under fire last month for publicly admitting to a tactic common among her counterparts at research universities. To keep top faculty members from accepting outside offers, she sometimes will reduce their teaching loads. Critics seized on Chancellor Rebecca Blank’s comments as an example of what’s wrong with higher education, saying that rewarding good professors by reducing their exposure to students was a kind of perverse incentive — and an expensive one, to boot. But how fair is the criticism, and just how common and how bad — if at all — is the practice? It depends on whom you ask.

Finance committee starts 2015-17 budget revision process with agency briefings

AP

MADISON, Wisconsin — The Legislature’s finance committee began on Monday a months-long push to revise Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal for the next two fiscal years, grilling a handful of state officials on cuts to the University of Wisconsin System, plans for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena and the manning of prison towers.

Budget Cuts and CALS

WeAreGreenBay.com

Although they don’t have all the details, the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences realizes that it will be impacted by the $300 million dollar budget cut proposed for the next two years. The dean of CALS says all aspects of the school may be affected including faculty, class size and even research. Something that ultimately will be felt by the ag community throughout the state.

Budget deletes UW sexual assault reporting requirement

Wisconsin Radio Network

A provision in Governor Scott Walker’s proposed 2015-2017 state budget would allow University of Wisconsin System campuses to stop reporting sexual assaults. The language is part of the governor’s larger proposal to grant greater autonomy to the UW. A summary of the governor’s budget compiled by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau noted that the language is just one of a number of changes included under a plan to create a UW System Public Authority.

More questions than answers

Agri-View

“At the onset of the budget-crafting process, there are more questions than answers about how agriculture’s priorities will fare in overall changes to the University of Wisconsin System,” said Jim Holte, president, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, in a statement regarding Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget proposal announced this month.

The Lowdown on Higher Education

The Weekly Standard

Scott Walker was never going to win fans among the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. Four years ago, Wisconsin professors were in the state capitol protesting the governor’s plans to limit public employee collective bargaining powers. But, boy, did he make enemies this month when he proposed $300 million more in budget cuts to the state’s university and altering the words of the school’s mission. Walker has clearly made some tactical missteps in recent weeks—and the fact that he himself doesn’t have a college degree doesn’t add to his credibility. But Walker’s problems are those almost everyone in the Republican field could soon have.