In 48 U.S. states, government spending on each college student is still below where it was before the recession that ended almost six years ago. Now, at least seven governors propose cutting deeper.
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.”
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.
I am deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to the UW system, and the proposed loosening of public control.
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.)
Officials say Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed biennial budget plan to whittle down the University of Wisconsin System budget by $300 million over two years could lead to devastating cuts to smaller two-year campuses across the state.
With chants of “No if’s, no but’s, just say no to budget cuts!” about 50 University of Wisconsin-Green Bay students rallied on campus Wednesday to oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to trim UW System funding by $300 million.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross is seeking a smaller budget cut than the $300 million Gov. Scott Walker is proposing. He’s also asking for greater autonomy for the system. Joy Cardin’s guest education policy expert discusses what a UW System Authority would look like and why she says it’s a bad deal.
The University of Wisconsin’s Faculty Senate passed resolutions Monday for shared governance and public authority, and members said they were unable to support a public authority until a commission has had time to evaluate its implications.
Criticisms alluded to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank at the state’s Joint Finance Committee hearing Tuesday amid discussions of the proposed budget cuts and autonomy for the UW System.
Representatives from five state agencies, including the University of Wisconsin System, testified before the state’s budget committee Tuesday.
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.
If UW-Madison falls under Public Authority status as a part of the budget, certain provisions would be under control by the Board of Regents and no longer backed by state law, Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee Chair Dolly Wang said during a meeting Tuesday.
It is time we check our preconceptions about Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts at the door and actively try to understand both sides.
A Republican state lawmaker and outspoken critic of the University of Wisconsin took aim at a UW economist on Monday for producing research that disputes the benefits of right-to-work laws.
New operating flexibilities for the University of Wisconsin System would save only $15 million to $20 million in the first year if approved, UW System President Ray Cross testified Tuesday before the Legislatures budget-writing committee.
Republicans on the Legislature’s finance committee demanded assurances Tuesday from University of Wisconsin System officials that they won’t dramatically increase tuition if they’re uncoupled from state oversight under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan.
Cross acknowledged the need created by Walker’s proposed budget for all state agencies to make “difficult decisions,” but said the level of the proposed cut is “serious.” UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Jim Schmidt added that a $300 million cut to the system would be “too much and too fast.”
UW-Madison faculty are struggling to find a way to influence the plan to convert the university from a state agency to an independent public authority, as proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.
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.”
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross is asking the Legislature’s budget committee to scale back Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut $300 million from the system.
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.)
Republicans on the Legislature’s finance committee demanded assurances Tuesday from University of Wisconsin System officials that they won’t dramatically increase tuition if they’re uncoupled from state oversight under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan.
University of Wisconsin System officials briefed members of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, on how the proposed UW System public authority and increased flexibilities included in Governor Scott Walker’s budget could impact the UW.
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.
Members of the state’s budget committee met Tuesday to hear testimony from state agencies on Gov. Scott Walker’s recent budget proposal.
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
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.
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.
A UW-Extension paper estimates that workers in the manufacturing sector earn an average of $8,100 less in states that have right-to-work laws, and that right-to-work states have more poverty and fewer college graduates.
State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor in a scathing email Monday afternoon, calling the academic’s report on right-to-work legislation and economic performance “partisan, garbage research.”
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.”
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.
In an about-face from his first term, Gov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate funding for a University of Wisconsin-Madison renewable energy research center that has played a key role in helping land one of its biggest government grants ever.
Ray Cross, president of the University of Wisconsin System, says that the “Wisconsin Idea” is embedded in the DNA of the university, and the Journal Sentinel has suggested that it “drives” the states economy. That may well be, but I have a preliminary question.
The budget would change the UW System into the new University of Wisconsin System Authority, moving the university’s 34,648.44 full-time-equivalent positions off of the state’s payroll.
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.
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.
Members of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee will begin the process this week of going over Governor Scott Walker’s state budget proposal.
According to a report published on Jezebel Friday morning, “Scott Walker Wants Colleges to Stop Reporting Sexual Assaults.” As with most budget items, it’s more complicated than that.
MADISON — A nonpartisan analysis of Gov. Scott Walker’s nearly $70 billion budget proposal released Thursday will serve as the blueprint for legislative debate for the next four months.
Walker’s budget includes giving the University of Wisconsin System more autonomy while also cutting $300 million from it and freezing tuition … Walker has said he’s open to lowering the cut to UW, as well as putting more money into public education and other changes.
Seventy-four University of Wisconsin faculty members from campuses across the state signed an open letter to UW System president Ray Cross, “insisting in the strongest possible terms” that Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to restructure the university as a public authority.
A group of professors, staffers and students from University of Wisconsin campuses statewide urged UW System president Ray Cross to withdraw support for sweeping changes to the universities proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, calling for a two-year moratorium.
“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.
At state university campuses around Wisconsin, department heads are going into budgeting processes contemplating cuts that could be as small as five percent or as large as 20 percent – or more.
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.
These are challenging days at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Because the university is so intrinsically linked to the community, I want you to know what has transpired.
Seventy-four University of Wisconsin faculty members from campuses across the state signed an open letter to UW System president Ray Cross, “insisting in the strongest possible terms” that Cross oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to restructure the university as a public authority.
With their embrace of right-to-work legislation, Republicans are advancing their four-year transformation of Wisconsin, weaving conservative policies and politics into the fabric of a state where the Progressive era has yielded to the age of Scott Walker.
This Republican revolution arguably represents the greatest reordering of Wisconsin’s politics in a century, encompassing everything from allowing the concealed carry of handguns, putting new rules on abortion providers and rolling over once powerful union foes.
A UW-Milwaukee student group is calling on stakeholders at all UW System campuses for a show of “no confidence” in university system and campus administrators for accepting Gov. Scott Walker’s reorganization of the university into a “public authority.”
Quoted: “Unfortunately for him the expectations are rising now and it’s going to be a little tougher to surprise people than before he got a national spotlight in Iowa,” said Keene, a UW-Madison and UW Law School graduate who grew up in Fort Atkinson and is now opinion editor for the Washington Times.
Along with more than 70 other faculty from across the University of Wisconsin-System, I believe that UW System President Ray Cross should publicly oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to transform the University of Wisconsin System to a public authority.
Chancellors and budget cutting task forces on campuses across the University of Wisconsin System are considering a variety of options for dealing with anticipated state budget cuts.
University of Wisconsin-Superior is negotiating an agreement with UW-Eau Claire to share services as part of an effort to cut costs and explore regionalizing services within the UW System.
This Saturday, the UW-Madison Division of International Studies and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are holding the third annual Wisconsin Global Youth Summit. More than 170 students from 35 high schools around the state will participate in activities that involve interacting with people from other cultures to stimulate their reflection on global citizenship and inspire them to explore the world. There’s an additional session for teacher with more than 60 participating.
The Wisconsin Idea is the guiding principle of the University of Wisconsin. This approach to higher education emphasizes service to the state: working shoulder-to-shoulder with people in their communities to solve problems and make life better. The philosophy was first articulated in 1904 by University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise, who said he would “never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every family in the state.”
If proposals by two Republican governors are approved, public universities in Illinois and Wisconsin could soon experience sweeping layoffs, program eliminations and possible campus closures.
Public higher education in Wisconsin always has kept a strong focus on the future. That is why it is encouraging to me to see the elements in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal that reinforce the University of Wisconsin System’s concentration on and commitment to shaping our identity of tomorrow while we deal with the challenges of today.
Tension was evident in Union South’s Varsity Hall Monday during a public forum discussing the ramifications Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed UW System budget cuts could have on UW-Madison undergraduates.
