Last year, when Katja Favretto started telling friends in Los Angeles that she was considering a job offer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the young political scientist says she started feeling apprehensive about a potential move to the Midwest.
â??People outside of academia would say, â??Where is Madison?â??â??â? recalls the 33-year-old Favretto, who earned her doctorate at UCLA, spent her adult life living in Southern California and joined UW-Madisonâ??s political science department as an assistant professor this past fall.
â??After I told them, theyâ??d say, â??Wes-consin? Why would you want to go to Wes-consin?â??â? Not long ago, many within academia were starting to ask the same thing.
….Yet today, UW-Madison is on the offensive. And surprisingly, the school is winning more recruiting battles than itâ??s losing.