Category: Opinion

McWilliams is a former chair of the Associated Students of Madison.

Guess the source of this quote: “There is no profession in the world, anywhere in the world, where if you work for seven years you get a lifetime guarantee of a job. Except at a university…If you have tenure at a university, by the time you are 35 you never have to prove yourself again.”

I admit to being agnostic when it comes to whether Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin system are a good idea.  I want the university to thrive, as I suspect most Wisconsinites do.

On the dumb scale, dissing “The Wisconsin Idea” while youre governor of Wisconsin is somewhere just to the south of suggesting that the Green Bay Packers are such a suck on the states resources that they should move to the U.P. Now, of course, that notion might gain purchase if Mike McCarthy settles for a few more field goals from the one-yard line but thats another column.

In the past few weeks, there has been much discussion regarding the University of Wisconsin System, its budget and access to higher education. But this discussion has missed some important points:

During his tenure as Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker has gotten a lot of ink for things he has done. But far less attention has been paid to the things he hasn’t been able to accomplish.

On the one hand, the Wisconsin Idea is a relic of Progressive-Era gasbaggery. The idea that the Wisconsin public university system could reach its fingers into every corner of the state was cooked up by university leaders like Charles Van Hise when he wasn’t trying to rid the state of “defectives” through the practice of eugenics. In the past 100 years, anyone who rightly criticized any wasteful practices at the UW were met by howls of “but the Wisconsin Idea!,” as if the mere invocation of the term constituted the last word.

You might think that one of the nation’s leading academic communication programs would be a good place to make a long-distance phone call.

A great state needs a great state university — as a source of educational opportunity, vital research and economic development. The founders of Wisconsin understood this, making provision in the first state constitution “for the establishment of a state university, at or near the seat of state government.” That provision also speaks of linking the great state university in Madison with “colleges in different parts of the state as the interests of education may require.” And it outlines strategies for supporting and sustaining higher education in Wisconsin.

To say the state can cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System without affecting the quality of education and research is simply not true. Far from saving money, failing to invest in higher education will results in a further lag on our already lagging economy compared to our neighbors.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A governor suggests that educators have a sweetheart deal, and, by golly, he’s going to do something about it on behalf of Wisconsin taxpayers. He will supply a set of “tools” to get the job done.

The implication from the headline is that faculty and staff have more time and effort they can give. This is more of the “politics as usual” from the Walker administration. As Gov. Walker stated, “divide and conquer.”

Once again, Gov. Scott Walker has hit the nail on the head. The proposed $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System over a two-year period with an increase in its responsibility to self-manage its financial decisions is overdue “UW System cuts could bring layoffs,” Jan. 28.

Still, when I hear System officials complain that Walker’s cuts and tuition freeze could cause layoffs, I also hear the sound of the world’s smallest violin playing mournfully in the background.

The governor’s proposal would grant the System greater autonomy over purchasing and the like, which, in the long run, will afford substantial savings. But it is the short-run cut in state support that should concern all of those who value the University. It’s a baffling recommendation given the state’s economic recovery and the governor’s claims to have repaired the structural deficit. Perhaps some in the governor’s circle assume UW is just another state agency. This is, frankly, akin to saying the Green Bay Packers are just another NFL team.

Gov. Scott Walker announced details of his 2015-2017 budget proposal that would turn the University of Wisconsin System into a public authority, extend the tuition freeze and cut funding by $300 million. In anticipation of the governors biennial budget address on Tuesday, a dynamic conversation already has begun among policy-makers, members of the UW and citizens in the state.

Last weekend, news reports began to swirl about potentially massive budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin System. On Tuesday, Gov. Scott Walker confirmed the worst: UW System campuses are slated to take a combined $150 million base budget cut over two years, so $300 million total in his upcoming 2015-17 biennial budget proposal.

There is only one word for Scott Walker’s comments about the University of Wisconsin faculty: demeaning.

Here’s hoping the debate is an honest effort to improve the performance, accessibility and accountability of the state’s largest higher education system, not a political exercise driven by perception rather than fact.

… once public universities or public university systems get the authority to increase tuition, “you get the tendency to increase tuition.”