University officials are committed to preserving access and affordability for a UW-Madison education and will continue to step up efforts to provide financial aid under the New Badger Partnership, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin told the Faculty Senate March 7.
Institutional financial aid grants have increased by more than 225%, or $14.7 million, since 2008, when Martin arrived on campus. Other forms of grants have also grown during that time, she said.
“It’s my highest priority,” Martin said of raising funds for financial aid, adding that she’ll be starting a campaign to educate the state’s residents about “sticker shock” and the misconception that actual costs equal the sticker price for all our students.
Martin was speaking to the Faculty Senate for the first time since Gov. Scott Walker’s introduction of his budget proposal for the next two years, which included a cut of $125 million to UW-Madison. Students are concerned that tuition will rise dramatically to make up such a cut.
Management of the budget cut will be achieved through a combination of efficiencies, tuition increases and cuts, Martin said.
“These are difficult and complicated times,” Martin said. “There is not a road map for weaving our way through them.”
Martin told the Faculty Senate the $125 million represented a cut of 13% of the university’s share of general state tax dollars, but just 9% of the university’s 101 funds.
Martin also outlined Walker’s proposal to establish a public authority to govern UW-Madison, a model she said would allow the university remain public but better compete as a world-class research institution. She pointed to documents showing the proposal is consistent with core principles agreed upon by the Faculty Senate and other governance and representative groups on campus.
Under a public authority, UW-Madison would have the ability to design a new personnel system that suits a research university environment and be governed by a board focused on the well being of UW-Madison, Martin said.
Martin and University Committee Chair Judith Burstyn fielded questions and commentary on the proposal for more than an hour at the Faculty Senate meeting, hearing a range of opinions and concerns.
Adam Gamoran, professor of sociology and educational policy studies and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, said the proposal would remove an “impenetrable layer of bureaucracy” that hampers the work of UW-Madison researchers and end a cycle of stagnant salaries that can only be countered by outside offers.
He told a story about a sociology professor who had experienced several years without raises before receiving competing offers from other universities. Although UW-Madison matched the offer she received, the damage had been done and she took the other opportunity.
“We lost her because we don’t have a system to determine how people can get paid,” Gamoran said. “The New Badger Partnership will break us out of that.”
While many were supportive, others said there is anxiety about the process by which the public authority is being proposed and for the potential that politics will influence the outcome.
“We’d like our fundamental principles to be upheld, but given the political situation, the governor’s strong veto power and his behavior, we’re not sure we can be guaranteed that academic freedom, tenure, shared governance” and other important tenets will be included in the final language, said Erika Marin-Spiotta, assistant professor of geography.
Martin said principles such as shared governance are in the budget bill and would remain critical to UW-Madison’s support for the proposal.
Some senators and other faculty members present expressed concern about the makeup of the 21-member board and the governor’s ability to appoint a majority of its members, as well as the effect on other UW institutions.
Martin said UW-Madison already participates in dozens of campus-to-campus collaborations with colleagues at other UW institutions, that UW-Madison is passionate about those relationships, and that those would continue to flourish under the new model.
Martin said the biggest risk to UW-Madison and other UW institutions was to face more cuts and possible tuition caps without the flexibility to deal with them.
“I don’t think there are many people in this state who feel we can afford to have the state’s treasure deteriorate in quality,” Martin says. “This is a proposal that says, ‘We can be more self-reliant if allowed to use the resources we have more efficiently.’”
For more details about the New Badger Partnership and the budget, visit budget.wisc.edu.