Deep in the bowels of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed 2015-’17 budget is language to exempt research done by the University of Wisconsin System from the state’s open records law, unless it is published or patented.
Colleges are usually at the forefront of radical politics, but when it comes to their own privileges they become feudal empires. Behold the revolt in the Wisconsin state university system over Governor Scott Walker ’s appeal for modest accountability. (Subscription required.)
Many of us have childhood memories of our introduction to public broadcasting, enjoying great programs like “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Gov. Scott Walker seems to genuinely enjoy antagonizing his perceived opponents, which has earned him a good deal of political currency outside of Dane County. But his move to gut the Wisconsin Idea has perplexed many. He has passed it off as a drafting error in his proposed budget, but we’ve since learned the cut was on his administration’s docket since at least December 2014. Why would Walker, given his presidential ambitions, risk such a politically brash move with nothing tangible to gain?
Harry Brighouse has an article on the proposed changes to the University of Wisconsin’s mission. My purpose is not to quarrel with his take, but to examine a particular line that caught my eye.
Saying that the university’s mission should be to serve Wisconsin’s workforce isn’t needed — the university already serves the state’s workforce. Anything less means crippling Wisconsin’s economy. To survive, Wisconsin manufacturers have to compete successfully in the global economy.
As an engineering graduate student at the UW-Madison College of Engineering, I saw firsthand the depth and reach of university research. As a member of a high-tech startup responsible for recruiting talent, I hired a number of excellent UW graduates, attracted back from high-tech companies on the coasts, to the economic benefit of Wisconsin.
Anyone who has attended a University of Wisconsin System school knows the lifelong value of the education they received there. Every year, tens of thousands of Wisconsin families rely on our state’s public university system to provide new adults with a solid foundation of employment skills, problem-solving abilities and invaluable relationships. The system also gives back to the state through research and outreach efforts that benefit the public.
“The time has come to make education through the 14th grade available in the same way that high school education is now available. This means tuition-free education should be available in public institutions to all youth for the traditional freshman and sophomore years or for the traditional two-year junior college course.”
The governor has proposed Wisconsin’s biennial budget. Now the work begins.
EDITOR: Gov. Scott Walker proposed a budget that includes a cut in state aid to the University of Wisconsin System. The headlines ever since have been pretty far-fetched. “Massive layoffs expected,” etc. It seems the sky is falling.
UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank has said certain UW-Madison graduate programs are underpriced. She’s partially right. What she’s not saying is that some UW System programs and majors are overpriced.
EDITOR: Wisconsin can be proud of the University of Wisconsin. It is a noted academic institution, and yes the athletics are great. It is first and foremost an academic entity. Our daughter is a graduate from this fine institution.
It is good to see that even members of his own party object to things in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget. My own view is that Walker has aimed heavy artillery at some of the things I most care about: education at all levels, environmental preservation, and the fund which supports Wisconsin Public Radio.
My family has a long tradition with the University of Wiscosnin-Madison and I’m appalled by Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million cuts to the UW System. We’ve had six members of our immediate family graduate from UW-Madison at the undergrad, graduate and Ph.D. levels.
Even as falling law school enrollment leads to a merger, among Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans there is growing engagement with the field.
EDITOR: I would like to share with readers the delight of some friends and colleagues who work in the states surrounding Wisconsin.
Like many of my fellow Badgers, I am constantly impressed by the incredible production of academic research that is undertaken and led by some of the greatest minds in the country at University of Wisconsin. Ranked fourth nationally in 2013 for annual research expenditures, UW places an emphasis on the importance of discovery and furthering the Wisconsin Idea.
Dear Editor: Many Wisconsin citizens and organizations have pointed out that Gov. Walker can save the University of Wisconsin System from huge cuts by accepting the $261 million to $315 million that is Wisconsin’s share of Medicaid money under the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. That sounds like a great way to save the UW System, save lives and honor the Wisconsin Idea.
Some UW System deans and chancellors are speaking out against Gov. Walker’s budget cuts and inaccurately portraying net effects on campuses.
We knew that relatively lean regional and two-year campuses would bear the brunt of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System. Now we know what it would mean for Stevens Point and the region.
My father and his two sisters graduated from UW-Madison in the mid-1920s. My two brothers and I graduated from UW schools in the ’60s. My three children graduated from UW schools in the ’80s. My three sons-in-law graduated in the ’80s. Two grandchildren attend UW schools.
I wish I could believe it was a drafting error but, alas, that dog won’t hunt.
I could not agree more that the absolute least we should accept from animal researchers is full public disclosure of their records.
State budget headlines have focused on massive cuts to the University of Wisconsin System and an attack-then-retreat on the Wisconsin Idea, which, we must infer, is that rare concept still popular across both blue and red Wisconsin.
A mere 2.5 percent budget reduction is what is being asked of the University of Wisconsin System. With a $6.1 billion annual budget, 35,000 employees for reference, the city of Manitowoc has 34,000 residents, 26 campuses and $700 million in cash reserves, the System has many opportunities to get lean, find efficiencies and make your tuition and tax dollars stretch further.
Last month, I was on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus at a talk on race. The facilitator began by apologizing for being a white man. I went quiet
Defend the Wisconsin Idea? Sure, but let’s get real about how intellectually and politically radical it is.
Further, the citizens of the state need to be given more time to weigh in on those hard, specific choices than is allowed in the current timeline.
Talk about putting your best foot forward only to get it stomped on.
It’s hard to believe that Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin’s budget over the next two years would allow the school to maintain its quality. Walker would prohibit the university from raising tuition during that period, but instead give university officials more flexibility in managing contracting and construction projects.
Even as falling law school enrollment leads to a merger, among Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans there is growing engagement with the field.
MILWAUKEE — Earlier this month, Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and potential Republican presidential candidate, unveiled a proposed budget that would cut $300 million of funds to the University of Wisconsin system and shift power over tuition from the Legislature to a new public authority controlled by appointed regents. The initial draft of Mr. Walker’s budget bill also proposed to rewrite the university’s 110-year-old mission statement, known as the Wisconsin Idea, deleting “the search for truth” and replacing it with language about meeting “the state’s work-force needs.”
Wisconsin is in a fight to create good-paying jobs for the 21st century economy. Wisconsin’s trend of declining household incomes only will be offset if we can generate new, good-paying jobs and stop the exodus of college graduates to other states. The recent proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s budget, in the absence of a concrete plan to ensure that our standards of excellence remain intact, will strike a blow to a key source of potential economic growth and undercut a major opportunity to translate the system’s scientific research into new, high-growth companies and jobs.
It’s hard to believe that Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin’s budget over the next two years would allow the school to maintain its quality.
UW reliably ranks among the nation’s most prestigious institutions and develops students who shape the world. Now, expand that impact to all 26 campuses that make up UW System and the 180,000 students enrolled plus the million Wisconsinites who benefit from UW-Extension services. It is immeasurable the impact that accessible education has on our communities.
I have numerous concerns regarding the governor’s budget plan, but felt it especially important to draw your immediate attention to the governor’s proposal to gut the University of Wisconsin system by slashing $300 million from its budget.
The UW’s long tradition of academic excellence includes 19 Nobel laureates and more. To keep that tradition going, Badgers need to fight to stop Scott Walker’s cuts.
Noted: Jonathan Pauli is assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology.
We need a free-thinking University of Wisconsin now more than ever. What transpires in the next few months between our state Capitol and UW, just 2,000 human paces apart, may determine our “human condition” the next 2,000 years.
Dear Editor: Why would anyone want to destroy a $15 billion economic engine for the state? That is an absolutely great return on a $1.2 billion investment as a state we make.
Dear Editor: Underemployed graduates are sick of paying so much tax money to the same University of Wisconsin System that did them no favors in the labor market. Anecdotes of graduate success adorn university websites and press releases, whereas anecdotes of failure are ignored.
The blanket exemption in Walker’s budget from open records laws for UW researchers could lead to abuse and public distrust.
It’s hard to believe that Gov. Scott Walkers proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System’s budget over the next two years would allow the system to maintain its quality. Walker would prohibit the university system from raising tuition during that period, but instead give university officials more flexibility in managing contracting and construction projects.
The Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Board captured the prevailing opinion last weekend when it called the jaw-dropping $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin “inexplicable.” Unfortunately, the board is wrong. There is a plausible vision behind what Gov. Scott Walker is trying to do, which makes his proposal much more dangerous than a simple misunderstanding of university operations.
All right, listen: I am a professional editor, and I am here to help.
First, take that amount out of the big surplus UW administration garnered while raising tuition to the maximum amount possible. Second, recover claw back the money given in error to UW employees because of an incompetent human resources payroll department.
Gov. Walker clearly stepped in it when his administration attempted to quietly slip into the budget substantive statutory language changes to what is known as the “Wisconsin Idea.”
All of the University of Wisconsin campuses face difficult personnel decisions in the wake of Gov. Scott Walker’s call for a $300 million System-wide cut in taxpayer support for the 2015-2017 biennium.
EDITOR: The proposed 2015 biennial budget not only will make it considerably more difficult for Wisconsinites to attend any and all University of Wisconsin campuses but it will also eliminate citizen voice and control in the UW governing process.
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget achieved an unusual result in a Legislature that has been so politically divided: It united a handful Democrats and Republicans who oppose some of the proposals.
I’m honored to be serving the friends and neighbors of the 69th Assembly District! I’m also delighted to be taking part in the first budget process since my election over a year ago.
I really hope the state budget wraps up soon, because I don’t know how much more flippant politicking I can take from Wisconsin’s governor/presidential candidate — nor how much more righteous indignation I can take from the officials of multimillion UW-Madison and its billion-dollar parent institution, the UW System.
Can you imagine UW-Madison after it has been decimated by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts?
Among the many other non-budgetary and bad policy items in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed biennial state budget, theres this: The governor is asking for a measure that could be used to hide certain research in the University of Wisconsin System. Two previous efforts in the last two years to thwart public access to such research failed, one rejected by the Joint Finance Committee and one by an Assembly committee.
It’s probably only fair to point out, though, that UW-Madison profs might also be suffering from comparatively low wages because so darn many have been promoted to the highest pay category, but there’s only so much money to go around.
Greenler is a Madison resident and an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Kudos to conservative professors James Baughman and John Sharpless for defending UW-Madison in the face of the severe cuts Gov. Scott Walker is proposing to the University of Wisconsin System. It is great to hear such dedicated teachers, scholars and citizens defend UW-Madison, which is a state treasure regardless of any warts it bears.
[T]he proposal by the Walker administration to strike statutory language directing the UW to focus on “public service” and “the search for truth” has turned out to be a healthy development for the state.
A “drafting error” of this scope, defended initially by the governor, is not really an error at all. Sadly, it is a look into the values and beliefs of the governor and those around him. It is good that he backtracked, after the public outcry. Let this be instructive to us in the days, weeks and months ahead as his full budget comes under public scrutiny in the light of day.
For starters, lawmakers should ease the university cut. The governor pitched his historic reduction to the 26-campus System as a trade. UW would lose state aid in exchange for more autonomy from state rules.
