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Video: First Campus Forum on Financing Public Higher Education

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

On Tuesday, February 23, 2010, the first Campus Forum on Financing Public Higher Education took place in the Memorial Union, hosted by PROFS, CAPE, and UFAS. As summarized in greater detail in a previous article in S&W, the purpose of this first forum was to identify and explain the current fiscal challenges facing the University of Wisconsin. Future planned forums in the series will dissect proposed solutions. Members of the local press as well as interested faculty, staff, and students were in attendance.

For the benefit of those who could not attend, we are now belatedly posting (courtesy of CAPE) a link to the complete video record (157 MB) of the presentations by the three distinguished speakers: Noel Radomski, director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE); Andrew Reschovsky, professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs; and Kevin Reilly, President of the University of Wisconsin System.

All three presentations made clear that the budget problems facing the state of Wisconsin, and therefore the University, will be with us for some time to come and will require difficult choices.

Planning for the second forum in the series, which will likely take place in early Fall 2010, is now underway.

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

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 »

Faculty Senate to vote on a resolution on “Smart Furloughs”.

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

At their February 1 meeting, the Faculty Senate will vote on a resolution brought by the Department of Physics. The resolution voices strong support for the “Smart Furlough Bill” (AB 551) introduced by Rep. Kelda Helen Roys. For those not already familiar with it, the Badger Herald reported on the bill in early November, and PROFS has expressed strong support (we were unable to find any coverage of the bill by the Wisconsin State Journal or the Capital Times).

We encourage S&W readers to become familiar with the “Smart Furlough Bill” and to post comments here. In addition, those on the faculty should communicate their views on the resolution to their Faculty Senator(s).

The full text of the resolution is reproduced here: (more…)

Posted in Compensation, State-University Relations, The University System | No Comments »

Dramatic action in New York — could UW benefit from similar leadership?

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Yesterday, the office of Governor Paterson (New York) issued this press release: http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/press_01151001.html

The full text is reproduced below for the convenience of S&W readers. While we have not had time to digest the details, our impression at first reading is that the problems facing the SUNY system are very comparable to those facing us here at UW and that similar dramatic action and creative leadership are urgently needed. As always, reader comments are invited. (more…)

Posted in State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget, The University System, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The future of public research universities?

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published a piece entitled Needed: a National Strategy to Preserve Public Research Universities that should be mandatory reading for those concerned about the future of UW-Madison. Unfortunately, we cannot legally reprint the entire article here, and access is for subscribers only (and, rumor has it, those accessing via the library system from a UW account). The following key quotes, however, summarize the problem: (more…)

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

New collective bargaining agreement for TAs, PAs

Friday, November 6th, 2009

We post here, unedited and without editorial comment, the complete text of an informational letter circulated by Letters & Sciences summarizing changes in the collective bargaining agreement for Teaching Assistants and Project Assistants, as signed recently by Governor Doyle.

(more…)

Posted in Collective bargaining, Instruction, Letters and Sciences, State-University Relations, The University System | No Comments »

A call to speak up

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

After speaking to faculty across the university, it is clear to me that opposition to the Provost’s plan to dismantle the Graduate School is widespread. However, many faculty members seem hesitant to speak up, and I have even heard rumors that reporters are having trouble finding faculty sources willing to go on the record. Feeling intimidated is human, but the health of our research enterprise, and indeed of our institution itself, is on the line here. This is not the time for timidity.

(more…)

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

Professors of the World, Unite?

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

The recent bill granting the faculty of the University of Wisconsin the right to unionize attracted the attention of the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal:

Professors of the World, Unite?

We are posting the link here not because the editors of this forum take sides (yet) on whether faculty should unionize but rather to promote awareness of the issue and to invite comment, both pro and con, from readers. In particular, comment is invited on (a) whether the op-ed piece is factually accurate, and (b) whether unionization is desirable for UW-Madison faculty.

- the Editors

Posted in Collective bargaining, State-University Relations, The University System | 4 Comments »

Collective bargaining at UW – the next chapter

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

The issue of collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin academics — from graduate research assistants to tenured faculty — percolated for years (at least partly “under the radar” for many campus citizens) and finally came to a head over the summer. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which has been a major force behind the push, summarized the situation (as they see it) in this article that appeared very shortly after the legislation was signed on June 29, 2009.

There are stories within stories here, and most readers are blissfully unaware of how a very few individuals on both sides of the issue played a disproportionate role in shaping the outcome, especially for UW RAs, who came within a hair’s breadth of being absorbed into an existing union without their knowledge or consent. These are stories for another time.

The important point is that every affected group now has the choice (a) whether to unionize and (b) if so, who should represent them. (more…)

Posted in Collective bargaining, The UW-Madison Campus, The University System | 9 Comments »

Sifting and Winnowing