The Associated Students of Madison Coordinating Council reviewed the biennial budget developments and brainstormed ideas to encourage student activism against the proposal.
Category: State news
Gov. Scott Walker again refuses to clarify position on evolution
He also says he’s open to a long-term cap on UW tuition during a conference call with local reporters from London.
Jonathan N. Pauli: Alumni should step up to challenge UW cuts
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.
UW President Ray Cross feared lawmakers would curtail shared governance, tenure
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank urged Cross to include Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison’s chief financial officer who’s experienced and respected at the state Capitol, on the System’s negotiating team. Cross said Tuesday that he heeded Blank’s suggestion, agreeing that Bazzell “has a good financial mind.”
UW chancellor addresses UW and state budget cuts during series of forums
UW chancellor, Rebecca Blank, is inviting the campus community to come together to discuss Governor Scott Walkers proposed budget cuts to the U-W System.
Timothy Shaw: Purpose of education is more than getting a job
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.
Randy O’Connell: Proposed cuts to UW warrant stiff resistance
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.
Walker Dodges Questions On Foreign Policy, Evolution During UK Event
Walker was also asked by Chatham House moderator, Justin Webb of the BBC, why his budget rewrote the UW’s mission statement to delete what’s known as the Wisconsin Idea. “Well how did you get in this mess though about changing its sort of — its stated purpose?” Webb asked. “I don’t want to get into too much detail and sort of bore people who don’t know a lot about the University of Wisconsin and I certainly don’t, but you’ve fiddled with something that a lot of people felt very strongly about. Do you regret it?”
Walker Says He’s Open To Permanent Tuition Cap At UW
Walker was asked about that prospect at the Chatham House think tank in London and floated the idea of permanent caps on tuition. “I think there’s some lawmakers in the state Legislature that want to put in the statutes — I’d be open to that — to permanently putting in place some sort of a cap on tuition,” said Walker.
Rebecca Blank: UW-Madison layoffs could begin in April
The state’s biennial budget may not be finalized until May or June, but layoffs as a result of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System could hit UW-Madison as soon as April, Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced Wednesday.
Don’t close records of UW animal researchers
The blanket exemption in Walker’s budget from open records laws for UW researchers could lead to abuse and public distrust.
Faculty, staff and students to rally against UW System cuts
Quoted: Karma Chávez, associate professor of communication arts.
“We need to decide whether affordable and high-quality public universities are the vital resource they have always been to Wisconsinites, or if the UW System is worth giving up, to be replaced by something inferior, or to shut down access in some parts of the state altogether,” Chavez said. “Clearly the Walker administration has chosen the latter.”
Scott Walker’s risky university experiment
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.
Deregulation of tuition in Texas could provide cautionary tale for Wisconsin
After seeing tuition skyrocket after the public university system was given more autonomy, leaders are looking for a different strategy.
PolitiFact: Checking in on Scott Walker education promises
New today from PolitiFact Wisconsin: With Gov. Scott Walker’s 2015-17 budget introduced, we turn to the Walk-O-Meter for an early look at several education-related promises from the 2014 campaign, including ones on private-school vouchers, Common Core standards and college tuition freezes for tech schools and the UW System.
Walker aide: UW System cuts are flexible, complaints unwarranted
While Gov. Scott Walker is on a trade mission in London, his administration threw a curveball at University of Wisconsin System leaders upset by $300 million in proposed state budget cuts over the next two years.
A fundamental question in UW debate: Will it be pursuit of knowledge or simply employable skills?
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.
Some of $300 million in cuts could be covered by cash balances, UW acknowledges
It’s not a done deal that the University of Wisconsin System will have to find $300 million in cuts over the next two years if Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget stands in the Legislature.
Blank to UW Staff: ‘I’m sorry’ layoffs are coming
A large, standing room-only UW-Madison faculty and staff audience heard Chancellor Rebecca Blank apologize late Wednesday night as she warned layoffs under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal were unavoidable and could come as early as April.
Taking the red pen to the Wisconsin Idea: column
All right, listen: I am a professional editor, and I am here to help.
Peter R. Orszag: Scott Walker’s risky university experiment
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.
[Note: this column also appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal here.]
The Governor Who Maybe Tried to Kill Liberal-Arts Education
Last Wednesday, Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker released a biennium budget plan that had a strange twist nestled inside. This line item didn’t have much, if anything, to do with how he intended to spend the state’s money; it had no numbers, dollar signs, nor provisos. It did, however, deal ever-so-vaguely with Wisconsin’s economy—at least, what Walker envisioned it would look like down the line and how higher education would make that happen.
UW System reorganization could put campuses in ‘buildings race’ to attract affluent students
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed restructuring of the University of Wisconsin promises to send it down the path of a public university “buildings race,” a competition for students wealthy enough to pay deregulated tuition, write UW-Madison graduate students Lenora Hanson and Elsa Noterman.
DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch: Wisconsin Idea drafting error got too much attention
Huebsch told reporters Tuesday the error is something that would have been found and corrected in the errata document that is compiled after the publication of every two-year budget.
On trip to UK, Scott Walker gets away from university flap
Few things in the state are as revered as the “UW,” a fact Walker collided with last week when he proposed cutting $300 million from the university system’s budget and removing the century-old philosophical underpinning of the school’s mission statement.
Scott Walker aide defends $300 million cut to UW System
A top official in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration defended the Republican governor’s budget proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System on Tuesday, saying that the System would soon have autonomy to deal with the funding reductions.
Hall: Letter to the Assembly on the importance of the UW System
I am writing to thank you for your commitment to preserving the excellence and integrity of the University of Wisconsin System. As a native Wisconsinite, I have always felt tremendous pride that our humble, decent state has created and sustained one of the world’s premier institutions of higher learning and a state system that is the envy of the rest of the nation.
Scott Walker Attacks Public Education—Again
It was no surprise that when Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his proposed two-year budget last week he included massive cuts to public education.
Letter-writing campaigns not in area universities’ plans
UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout have no plans to follow UW-Madison’s lead and petition its alumni, parents and students to write to legislators and announce their oppositions to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts.
Bruni: Higher Education, Liberal Arts and Shakespeare
Noted: Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and a likely presidential candidate, signaled his membership in this crowd when he recently proposed a 13 percent cut in state support for the University of Wisconsin. According to several reports, he simultaneously toyed with changing the language of the university’s mission statement so that references to the “search for truth” and the struggle to “improve the human condition” would be replaced by an expressed concern for “the state’s work force needs.”
Chancellor Blank to hold talks on proposed UW System cuts
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank will host a series of forums this week to discuss Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed cuts to the UW System budget.
Chancellor Rebecca Blank to host forums on Scott Walker budget at UW-Madison this week
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank will host a series of forums on Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget that she says would leave the campus with a $91 million shortfall next year.
National Perspectives on Walker’s Proposed UW System Cuts
One observer says presidential hopefuls might raise the issue, thinking it could hurt Gov. Walker in polls. Another stunned that Wisconsin is talking cuts.
Editorial: Clumsy, yes, but why not debate?
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.”
Pommer: What is UW System’s future?
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.
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts will make UW System less affordable
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.
Walker’s budget raises questions
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.
Rep. Bob Kulp: Put UW System budget cuts in perspective
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.
Faculty, staff at UW-Madison organize to fight Scott Walker’s budget cuts
Invoking the spirit of the “uprising” that occupied the Wisconsin Capitol in 2011, UW-Madison faculty and staff are planning a rally and march on Saturday, Valentine’s Day, to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts to the UW System.
On Campus: Protesters upset they weren’t let into Regents meeting
The brief disagreement happened outside the meeting on the second floor of the Union South building in Madison. Once the 92-person seating capacity was reached, police denied further entry, redirecting people to a different room where the meeting was being broadcast live, said Alex Hummel, UW System spokesman.
Chris Rickert: Students the likely losers in battle between Walker, UW
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.
Walker budget clips authority of state Building Commission
While the shift isn’t generating the amount of publicity as Walker’s plan to make the Natural Resources Board advisory, the change is significant since it consolidates key borrowing decisions within the Department of Administration, including bonding for transportation purposes. Under the Walker budget, the Building Commission would no longer meet in order to approve projects or the borrowing to make them happen. The commission — which by statute includes members of both political parties and is chaired by the governor — has traditionally met monthly. Instead, the commission would operate under what the budget proposal calls a “passive review process” where items are considered approved unless a majority of Building Commission members request a meeting.
Rep. Chris Taylor: We must stop decimation of UW System
Can you imagine UW-Madison after it has been decimated by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts?
Budget item to hide UW research is bad public policy
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.
Problems swirl around new state test tied to Common Core standards
Noted: The governor has not explicitly explained his wish to switch to not just one new state exam in the next biennium but also an undetermined amount of other exams approved by an education research entity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chris Rickert: On salary, UW-Madison professors are ‘full’ of themselves
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.
Robert Greenler: Scott Walker fails to give UW research its due
Greenler is a Madison resident and an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Tenure, campus governance new focus of Scott Walker budget bill scrutiny
Jo Ellen Fair recalls being shaken when she read through Gov. Scott Walker’s 1,800-page budget bill this week and saw that the state law creating shared governance and tenure at the University of Wisconsin would be wiped out if Walker’s plan is approved by the Legislature.
Kudos to UW’s conservative defenders — Donald Downs
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.
Public broadcasting braces for possible cuts under Scott Walker’s budget plan
The governor is proposing a $2.5 million cut in state funding each year over the next two years to the Educational Communications Board, which spends about $19 million a year.
John Nichols: Wisconsin Idea trumps Scott Walker
[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.
Roberta Gassman: Scott Walker’s ‘drafting error’ reveals his values
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.
Scott Walker’s state budget needs big changes
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.
UW System needs to show how budget cut will hurt, Ray Cross says
In a TV interview on “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” Cross said that the cuts proposed in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget could “seriously damage the whole system,” and that he doesn’t think they are inevitable.
Scott Walker’s proposed changes to UW System spark week’s most-read stories
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal was probably going to be responsible for a number of the top stories last week regardless, but a section rewriting the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement made the administration circle the wagons.
The Idea is more than just words — Emily McWilliams
McWilliams is a former chair of the Associated Students of Madison.
Walker budget proposes elimination of board overseeing for-profit institutions
Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plans to cut or consolidate state agencies includes the elimination of an obscure board that mainly regulates for-profit schools and some nonprofit institutions from out of state.
Drafting error drew plenty of attention for Scott Walker
In a week that Gov. Scott Walker’s “drafting error” claim for his budget re-write of the UW System mission statement drew a Pants On Fire rating from fact checker PolitiFact Wisconsin, the 2016 GOP presidential aspirant drew plenty of national attention.
Budget cut protesters outside UW Regents meeting this morning
A few dozen protesters showed up at the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents this morning in Madison to respond to news of potential layoffs and what they consider a proposed “privatization” of the state public higher education system.
Walker’s wake-up call to a Wisconsin institution
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.”