Archive for February, 2010

The other shoe drops: UC Ad Hoc Committee report on the research enterprise.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

As reported here and elsewhere,  the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Enterprise already released its report back on January 22.

We had been waiting with bated breath for the counterpart committee appointed by the faculty’s University Committee (UC) to release its own findings on the same issue.  This report was originally due by the end of 2009, but this deadline could not be met.

The following message has just now  (2:50 pm today) been broadcast by the University Committee: (more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

Mark your calendars: Campus Forum on Financing Public Higher Education

Friday, February 19th, 2010

How will we pay for public higher education in Wisconsin and at UW-Madison in the years to come? Metaphorically speaking, we have entered a dark fiscal tunnel of unknown length, and that glimmer of light up ahead just might be an oncoming train.  According to former UW System President Kathryn Lyall (pers. comm.),

[T]his is the overarching policy issue of the decade (century?) and we need all members of the university community, as well as those in the wider public, to understand the inexorable trends that are driving the university’s future and what it can expect to do for the state in the future.

Three separate campus organizations — PROFS, UFAS, and CAPE — have come together to jointly sponsor the first of a planned series of public forums on the subject, to be held Tuesday, February 23, 4:00-5:30 pm at the Memorial Union (check Today in the Union to confirm the room location; tentatively the Wisconsin Inn). (more…)

Posted in College costs, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget, The University System | 2 Comments »

A good start in 2010 … and an appeal to S&W readers.

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The first few weeks of the Spring semester have seen significant growth in the readership of S&W — 1,200 unique visitors and almost 20,000 hits in the month of January alone, most of which occurred after the start of the semester. S&W is being followed on Twitter by most of the local media, and we know for a fact that some important media coverage of campus-related issues was prompted by our first drawing attention to those issues here. Also, we note that whenever articles have been posted on topics of widespread interest, such as new developments in the Graduate School restructuring controversy or the animal lab citations, readership has briefly surged to 2-3 times the “background” level.

So, for the moment at least, we are no longer struggling to raise our profile. The readership is there. All that is needed to sustain and further build that readership is a steady supply of content that is (a) highly relevant to our readers and (b) not available elsewhere. (more…)

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Regents Plan Next Steps for Growth Agenda

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

S&W recommends the following article from Jack O’Meara of  PROFS — it goes beyond some of what we’ve seen in the regular press about the Regents’ recent initiatives:  Regents Plan Next Steps for Growth Agenda.

Generally speaking, we’re finding that the PROFS website is an excellent source of information and commentary about campus issues.  Not only do we recommend bookmarking the site, but we strongly encourage faculty who are not that familiar with PROFS to read more about PROFS here and consider joining.

- the Editors

Posted in State-University Relations, The University System | 2 Comments »

Press coverage of the restructuring controversy

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

(Last updated Feb. 2, 2010)

Links to all relevant articles in the press, including some recent national coverage, are collected here in chronological order for the convenience of readers.

(more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »