State universities have struggled through the financial crisis, forcing many to confront the question of what it means to be a state university.
Category: State news
UW System split battle wearing on Biddy
Wisconsin State Journal
(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.”
GOP Lawmaker: UW Split Probably Won’t Happen (WTAQ-FM, Green Bay)
A top Republican legislator says his colleagues probably won?t split UW-Madison from the rest of the university system.
UWMC listening session (WAOW-TV, Wausau)
WAUSAU (WAOW)–UW-Marathon County hosted a listening session Monday to discuss proposed state budget cuts and a break-off of UW-Madison.
Speakers focus on school aid at state budget hearing
Wausau Daily Herald
Leaders of the University of Wisconsin System discussed two proposals to give universities more flexibility to cope with expected budget cuts during a forum Monday at UW Marathon County.
Editorial: Don’t understate student voice
Daily Cardinal
Most of the decisions surrounding the New Badger Partnership have focused on its promise to keep UW-Madison competitive in spite of deep budget cuts from the state. But beyond the financial benefits of increased autonomy, public authority status also presents UW-Madison students with a golden opportunity to strengthen shared governance.
Vos: UW split from System may not be likely this legislative cycle
Badger Herald
A lead member of the state?s powerful Joint Finance Committee said Sunday he thought the governor?s plan to allow the University of Wisconsin to spin off from other state schools is a complicated issue that may require more than one budget cycle to decide.
Chancellor Remains Confident In Plan To Spin Off UW-Madison
WISC-TV 3
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.
Vos says changes likely coming to Walker’s budget (WisPolitics.com)
Joint Finance Assembly Co-chair Robin Vos says lawmakers are likely to change the guv?s budget proposals for recycling grants, SeniorCare and spinning off UW-Madison from the rest of the system.
Chamber group opposes UW System split (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)
A central Wisconsin economic development agency is taking a stand against Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to split the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus from the larger UW System.
Brad Taylor: Logic supports new status for UW-Madison
Wisconsin State Journal
Logic for UW-Madison?s flagship freedom is built on a few realities and implications.
….Quoting a management phrase, “lead, follow or get out of the way.” The Legislature, Regents and System should get out of the way.
Biz Beat: State on pace to hit Walker jobs target
Capital Times
If you think Gov. Scott Walker is the devil incarnate, read no further. But Wisconsin is on pace to reach the governor?s goal of 250,000 more jobs in the state over the next four years — not that Walker is doing some magic tricks. The gains are most likely the result of the economic recovery that began in 2010.
Construction continues on facilities for ‘revolutionary’ medical research
Wisconsin State Journal
Construction cranes towering over the massive UW Hospital complex signal a big step in positioning Madison for a new era of medical research, officials say. Work started this month on the second tower of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, a $600 million, three-tower hub going up next to the hospital.
The institutes will eventually house some 1,700 researchers and lab workers from a variety of fields to study cancer, heart disease, brain disorders and other conditions. Most are moving from aging buildings on the central UW-Madison campus.
Labor’s last stand? Creating new governance structure a tall order
Wisconsin State Journal
Many government managers welcome the chance to shed some union contract obligations they see as too cumbersome or costly, but they also are struggling with how to create an entirely new governance structure.
Quoted: William Powell Jones, UW-Madison associate professor of history
Unions may shift focus of tasks to politics
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin?s new collective bargaining law would take away many of the traditional tasks of public sector unions, so some labor leaders are considering plans to shift more of their focus to the political arena. The law forbids contract negotiations on anything but cost-of-living raises ? eliminating bargaining on base wages, benefits and working conditions.
Scott Milfred: Take your pick in UW split — Gov. Scott Walker or Rep. Steve Nass
Wisconsin State Journal
Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Scott Walker are an odd pair pushing to give UW-Madison autonomy.
Mr. Walker goes to Washington
Daily Cardinal
Gov. Scott Walker testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Thursday to discuss the policies he has put in place at the state level since he took office in January.
Walker claims budget good for economy before U.S. congress
Badger Herald
The governor spent more than three hours Thursday fielding questions from members of the federal House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the actions he took during his first months in office to deal with the state?s budget troubles.
UW Students Plan March To Stop Bullying (AP)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin-Madison students plan to march silently on the Capitol to bring awareness to bullying in schools and universities.
Impact of UW split on Boo-U campus unclear (Baraboo News Republic)
The operation of Baraboo?s two-year University of Wisconsin campus, the success of its students and reputation of the degrees they will earn are built on connections with the UW System and its Madison campus, says Dean Tom Pleger of the UW-Baraboo/Sauk County.
Campus Connection: Time to ‘Break the Silence, Wisconsin’
Capital Times
Students from across Wisconsin are slated to rally Friday in Madison with the hopes of breaking the silence which is too often associated with bullying in schools and universities. Participants from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus are meeting at Library Mall at 4 p.m. before silently walking down State Street to the Capitol, where a “Break the Silence, Wisconsin” rally will begin at 5 p.m.
Experts Say Wisconsin Expected To Be Presidential Battleground State
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis. — Political experts expect presidential candidates to visit Wisconsin many times during election season. Many consider Wisconsin?s colors to be green and gold, but when it comes to politics, experts say the state is purple and expect that to carry over into the 2012 presidential race. Recent political battles over collective bargaining rights, recalls and the state Supreme Court race show a deeply divided state and have thrust Wisconsin into the national spotlight.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
Campus Connection: Student privacy vs. freedom of information
Capital Times
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.
Emotions flare over state budget at Wisconsin Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee budget hearing in Neenah (Fond du Lac Reporter)
Fond Du Lac Reporter
NEENAH ? For more than eight hours Wednesday, about 200 Wisconsinites stood before a state finance committee at Neenah High School and lavished both praise and contempt on Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed biennial budget.
Is his ‘Wisconsin Idea’ better? (Baraboo News Republic)
The University of Wisconsin-Madison isn?t the only state campus in need of greater flexibility to cope with $250 million in proposed spending cuts, UW System President Kevin Reilly said Wednesday.
Campus Connection: UW prof says let coin flip determine court election
Capital Times
Jordan Ellenberg, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, proposed an interesting way to resolve the state Supreme Court election.
Flip a coin.
No, seriously.
Douglas Stewart Lueck: Look for Walker to target public worker pensions
Capital Times
….Union/nonunion state employees receive substantially the same wage/benefit package every two years. The exception are the highly paid UW administrators or faculty members who supposedly require ?catch-up? with peers to dissuade them from leaving.
I exist on a monthly annuity from the Wisconsin Retirement System (covers state employees, K-12 teachers and most municipal employees). Annuitants aren?t exempt from Scott Walker?s cultural and economic blitzkrieg. We know it?s only a matter of time before the GOP stormtroopers target the WRS, raid its coffers and/or privatize it!
Joseph G. Lehman and Thomas Shull: Our right to ask about professors? political activism
Capital Times
A national debate is under way over the use of open records laws to seek documents from professors at public institutions of higher education. A Washington Post editorial last week criticized our organization, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, suggesting that we meant to chill academic freedom through a state Freedom of Information Act request that we filed with three public universities. The evidence shows that the Post has erred, but the general rush to judgment about the use of open records laws with public universities illustrates why defending the laws remains as challenging and important as ever.
UW System needs to compromise
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.
Doing what’s best for Wisconsin’s future
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The budget plan I introduced last month makes the hard choices and in doing so makes a commitment to the future. We are finally carrying our fair share, so we don?t leave a larger problem for our children and grandchildren. [A column by Gov. Scott Walker].
Committee that oversees UW-Extension in county voices concern over UW split (Portage Daily Register)
The Columbia County Board of Supervisors will be invited to go on record as favoring a proposal that would keep the University of Wisconsin-Madison part of the University of Wisconsin system – and opposing Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to put the Madison campus under a different governance system than the rest of the system?s campuses.
Gov. Walker making the case for UW-split
Wisconsin Radio Network
The Governor also mentioned the Wisconsin State Journal?s endorsement Sunday of his plan, along with UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, to give public authority to the campus. This split from the rest of the UW-System, would provide the flexibility necessary to ensure world class research and development at the Madison campus, said Walker.
Editorial: UW System needs to compromise
Daily Cardinal
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.
Ellenberg: To resolve Wisconsin?s state Supreme Court election, flip a coin
Washington Post
Wisconsin?s already-fraught politics got even crazier last week when a bitterly contested, high-turnout state Supreme Court election ended in a near tie. Incumbent Justice David Prosser leads challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by less than 0.5 percent, which means Kloppenburg has the right to a state-funded recount. We are probably headed toward a long, expensive, law-snarled process ? much like Florida in 2000 or the Minnesota Senate election in 2008.
Naomi Schaefer Riley: Why professors shouldn?t be activists
Capital Times
The Republican Party of Wisconsin wants to see what William Cronon has been emailing about. Through an open records request, the state GOP is asking to see correspondence from Cronon, a professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, that includes the terms ?Republican,? ?Scott Walker? and ?collective bargaining,? among many other keywords and names.
(Naomi Schaefer Riley, a former editor at the Wall Street Journal, is the author of the forthcoming ?The Faculty Lounges … and Other Reasons Why You Won?t Get the College Education You Paid For.? This column appeared first in The Washington Post.)
Wisconsin high court race yields mixed results as both sides gird for recount
Wisconsin State Journal
When a little-known liberal challenged a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, the once-sleepy race suddenly looked like a back-door way for Gov. Scott Walker?s opponents to sink his agenda.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer
Gary L. Kriewald: Memorial Union next?
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Chris Rickert: When are we going to find a better way to pick a Supreme Court?
Wisconsin State Journal
There may well be no stupid questions. But answers? Undoubtedly. Witness the standard partisan responses Wednesday to the question burning on the lips last week of just about every journalist, pundit and activist from Kenosha to Bayfield:
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden
Is Wisconsin ‘broke’? Answer is in the eye of the beholder, experts say
Wisconsin State Journal
In his inaugural budget address, Gov. Scott Walker stood before a joint session of the Legislature and delivered the somber news: We?re broke.”
Too many politicians have failed to tell the truth about our financial crisis,” he said. “The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it?s time to start paying our bills today so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow.”
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs
Give UW flagship more freedom
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison needs more freedom and flexibility to remain a world-class institution of higher learning and research.Gov. Scott Walker and Chancellor Biddy Martin?s push for public authority status for the Madison campus deserves bipartisan support from the Legislature.
Perspective: Split or unity? Education community differs on future of UW system
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Gov. Scott Walker?s biennial budget proposal seeks to remove the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System, establishing a separate governing board and allowing it greater flexibility in areas such as budgeting and tuition. The proposal, backed by Madison chancellor Biddy Martin, is part of Walker?s plan to cut that school?s funding by $125 million ? in addition to $125 million in cuts that would be absorbed throughout the rest of the system. [Columns by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Thomas Hardin and a historical perspective on the UW System].
University of Wisconsin System split divides chancellors
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Gov. Scott Walker has called the state?s current university setup a “cumbersome bureaucracy” that imposes red tape on campuses.He expressed openness to management flexibilities for all campuses, but he wants to start with the state?s flagship research university.
That proposal, called the New Badger Partnership, would make UW-Madison a public authority, which means it would no longer be attached to the state executive branch, but it would remain a public institution that would receive state funding.
Long-term future of UW System uncertain
Appleton Post-Crescent
GREEN BAY ? In an era of tightening budgets, an organizational battle is brewing over the structure of Wisconsin?s public university system, and it involves rival plans.
Editorial: Good riddance to the Regents
Badger Herald
Last Thursday, Chancellor Biddy Martin sent a campus-wide email arguing that the Wisconsin Idea Partnership proposed in response to the New Badger Partnership did not go far enough in extending flexibility to this university. Martin stated she had offered a compromise, one in which Madison would still gain public authority status, with other System campuses gaining similar forms of independence. She ended the email with a call for individual students to contact their legislators and advocate for the proposal.
Editorial: Give UW flagship more freedom
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison needs more freedom and flexibility to remain a world-class institution of higher learning and research.
University Student Found Dead In River Falls Dorm
WISC-TV 3
MILWAUKEE — A student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls has been found dead in her dorm room. A fellow student found the woman?s body Thursday morning in Prucha Hall. Her name isn?t being released until her family is notified.
Editorial: UW system must be unified, accountable (LaCrosse Tribune)
Are public universities in Wisconsin public institutions or not?
State budget hearing in Stevens Point draws fewer dissenters than expected
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
One by one, they stepped up to the lectern.And one by one, they ripped Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed two-year state budget as they testified before the Legislature?s budget committee.
State asks top court to implement bill
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Scott Walker?s administration went to the state Supreme Court late Thursday afternoon in a bid to implement its controversial collective bargaining measure.
Mark Klipstein: Soaring public employee retirements damage state talent pool
Capital Times
When The Capital Times reported recently that Wisconsin public employee retirements jumped 31 percent through Feb. 25 compared to the same period last year, the data did not begin to hint at the breakneck pace of a new phenomenon in the state?s public workplace.
How valuable is your library?
Wisconsin State Journal
….This is also an important time to be supportive of libraries in Wisconsin. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed budget for 2011-13 includes a 10 percent cut each year in state funding for public libraries, cuts of 11.6 percent in the first year and 6.6 percent in the second year in school library funding, as well as a provision that would eliminate a requirement that local funding for public libraries be maintained, at minimum, at the average of the prior three years.
To kick off National Library Week, the UW-Madison Libraries are again hosting the Edible Book Festival on Tuesday, April 12, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. in Room 460 at Memorial Library, 728 State St.
On Campus: Some students question UW-Madison chancellor’s “call for action”
Wisconsin State Journal
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.
Testimony for Joint Finance Committee leans against budget bill
Badger Herald
The Joint Finance Committee held a public hearing on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus Thursday, and despite a smaller than expected turnout, testimony on the governor?s new budget proposal for the next biennium was filled with passion.
Selection process important for students
Daily Cardinal
Public authority status is still months away for UW-Madison, but students are already thinking about how to fill their seat on the Board of Trustees.
Statewide budget hearings begin
Wisconsin Radio Network
Wisconsin residents across the state get their chance to weigh in on the Governor?s proposed state budget, starting today. The Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee will hold the first of three public hearings on the two-year state budget at the University in Stevens Point.
Board of Regents discuss details of Wisconsin Idea Partnership
Daily Cardinal
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents met Thursday to discuss the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, a plan endorsed by 13 UW chancellors to increase flexibility for every UW System School while keeping UW-Madison within the system.
Board of Regents fails to reach agreement on flexibility
Badger Herald
While members of the University of Wisconsin System emphasized the need for a unified voice in pursuing autonomy, officials reached little consensus on anything else in a Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
Crowds stay away from Wis. budget hearing (AP)
Madison.com
Massive crowds expected to swarm the first public hearing on Republican Gov. Scott Walker?s state budget proposal didn?t materialize Thursday, reducing the affair to another mundane legislative proceeding.
Campus Connection: Martin urges public authority backers to be heard
Capital Times
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.
Kloppenburg declares victory over Prosser in Supreme Court race
Wisconsin State Journal
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison professor of political science.