Archive for the ‘State-University Relations’ Category
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
The role of public higher education in a rapidly changing world rose to prominence last week with two developments: the University of Virginia’s governance debacle (see local commentary here) and the announcement of Gov. Scott Walker’s Flexible Online Degree initiative.
As noted in the previous article by another contributor, these two events have more in common than one might surmise from the above. Both highlight the growing problem of affordability of four-year degrees, and both have their roots in the notion that the traditional model of university education has become outdated and inefficient. In both cases, online education as a substitute for bricks-and-mortar lecture halls is/was touted as a solution. (more…)
Posted in College costs, Online education, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System, The Wisconsin Idea, UW Extension | No Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
Two events, each with potentially great repercussions for public higher education, came out of the blue last week. While one – the ouster of the President of the University of Virginia – was closely followed nationally and on this campus, the other – the announcement of a “flexible degree” model offered through UW-System/ Extension that, in the words of the Governor’s office, “will transform higher education in Wisconsin” received somewhat less attention than one might expect.
And yet the similarities are striking. In both cases, changes in education at a renowned public university are supposed to be implemented virtually overnight to fix a host of vaguely defined problems. And in both cases, the magic cure is to be found in online teaching and in other unspecified educational technologies. (more…)
Tags: Flexible degree, Online education
Posted in Flexible degree, Online education, State-University Relations, The University System, UW Extension | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 4th, 2012
The Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) has provided S&W with a document with the following title: Recommendations from the Academic Staff Executive Committee for the HR Design Phase I Work Groups, dated April 27, 2012. The original PDF document is here. The content has been transcribed below for the convenience of S&W readers. Transcription errors are possible. In case of doubt, please refer to the original document. – Ed.
Introduction
The Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) has spent the recent weeks reviewing the Preliminary Recommendations of the HR Design Phase I work groups. For the purpose of this review, we primarily concentrated on issues that would affect academic staff but also commented on other issues that we found in the documents. Before we go into individual work team recommendations, we have some overarching comments. These concern the lack of data upon which recommendations were based, the considerable investment of money and other resources that implementation of the recommendations would take, and the effects of the recommendations on academic staff. (more…)
Posted in Academic staff, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
This article has been cross-posted from the The Education Optimists at the request of the author. – Ed.
Last year, I wrote extensively about efforts led by former Chancellor Biddy Martin and her administration, donors, and alumni to privatize (or at least semi-privatize) the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That effort was partially successful, for while Martin and colleagues failed to separate Madison from the rest of the UW System, or gain authority over tuition setting, they did succeed in getting Madison the authority to redesign its human resources system. This new “flexibility” was praised by many on campus, including staff, faculty, and students, who recognize that the current bureaucracy is not working, especially for those outside of administration.
So, this year the Human Resource Design Project has been advertised as a tremendous opportunity, hard won, and far better than the alternative — the status quo. Perhaps. But few reforms are without consequence, and the recommendations recently offered by the working teams in HR Design suggest this case is no exception. (more…)
Posted in Academic staff, Classified staff, Collective bargaining, Compensation, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
A year ago, thousands of UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff marched to the Capitol to oppose Governor Walker’s radical attempts to destroy Wisconsin’s 50-year tradition of collective bargaining. Today, the Governor faces a recall, and a federal court has struck down some of the most onerous parts of Act 10. Yet UW-Madison may be on the verge of realizing the Governor’s anti-worker vision on campus. (more…)
Posted in Academic staff, Classified staff, Collective bargaining, Shared governance, State worker benefits, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
“Students should be working 40 hours a week, but these days they are taking off work to hang out with their friends and then are abusing Badger Care and the food pantries. Students need to pay attention to what’s going on around them.” — Fred Mohs, former University of Wisconsin regent and member of the legislative Special Task Force on UW Restructuring and Operational Flexibility
This is what I and several other students heard as we sat in the spectator gallery of a state Capitol hearing room. We were floored by the disconnect from reality that Mohs displayed. What’s worse is that it was not an isolated incident. It accurately reflects the task force’s primary mode of action: charting a course via anecdote. (more…)
Posted in College costs, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 5th, 2012
The Commission on Faculty Compensation and Economic Benefits has issued its annual report for 2011-2012 [PDF]. The commission rightly identifies a looming crisis in compensation for faculty and staff at UW-Madison. The report provides not only a thoughtful and sober analysis of the magnitude of the problem and of the role of sharply declining state support in exacerbating the problem; it also offers a fairly exhaustive itemization of options available to help mitigate the crisis; e.g., increased efficiencies, alternative revenue sources, and “temporary incentives.” (more…)
Posted in College costs, Retention, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The UW-Madison Campus | 9 Comments »
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
Readers whose retirement plans involve the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) may be interested in these upcoming presentations/forums sponsored by the WUU and AFSCME:
“The WRS: The attack against it. How to protect it.”
- Monday, March 12, 5-6 PM. Memorial Union.
- Monday, March 19, 12-1 PM. Union South
Background: Last week there was a flurry of comments, press releases, and TV appearances from the Governor and his staff asserting that they were not thinking about doing anything at all (indeed, “zero”) to the WRS system.
The denials (here) focused on Walker’s “study” of two WRS questions: Should WRS’s current defined benefit program be replaced with a defined contribution plan (such as a 401-K)? Should participation in the program be voluntary? (more…)
Posted in Compensation, State worker benefits, State-University Relations | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Last Wednesday, the Joint Finance Committee handed UW System an additional $46.1 million cut in the form a budget lapse, continuing the deleterious trend of divestment from public higher education and the economic engine of Wisconsin. Like the $250 million that JFC cut from UW System this summer, this $46.1 million budget lapse will lead to continued faculty and staff salary freezes, gradually rising tuition, and threats to UW-Madison’s ability to produce an educated workforce for the twenty-first century. Although it is politically convenient to blame these cuts on the current Republican legislature and the Walker administration, the cuts to UW System have long-standing bipartisan roots. (more…)
Posted in College costs, State-University Relations, The University Budget, The University System | 3 Comments »