OPINION & EDITORIAL
Lack of good government harms UW
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by Sam Clegg
Thursday, April 24, 2008
In 1944, on the eve of midnight for one of history’s greatest tyrannies, Congress made a behemoth investment in the future of the nation and signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act — affectionately nicknamed the G.I. bill — into law.
Sixty years later, reflecting on that most justified of state interventions, it is impossible not to ask — where the hell did government go in the meantime?
Granted, this university still receives the majority of its government funding from Washington, D.C. Yet the Wisconsin Legislature remains the most visible manifestation of the university’s fiscal ties to a larger society, and the university seems to keep getting the short stick.
First there’s the funding problem.
Ten years ago, the Legislature provided the university with $337.2 million, which made up 26.9 percent of a $1.25 billion university budget.
This past year, however, the university received $461.1 million, which amounted to just 20.19 percent of a $2.28 billion budget.
And so, though state funding for the university has admittedly increased, it has done so at a sluggish pace that belies a larger crisis — Wisconsin’s flagship, to compete with rival giants such as Illinois and Michigan, has gone on a spending binge to protect its reputation. Simultaneously, the Legislature has embarked on a campaign of fiscal conservatism at a time when undergraduate tuition has more than doubled over a 10-year period. Troubling to say the least.
There’s also the ominous penchant for intellectual quackery on the part of certain legislators who continually intervene in the university’s business in a manner that prevents even the most trivial of ameliorations from occurring.
Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, claiming to represent rural students at the university, opposes granting domestic partnership benefits to professors in a same-sex relationship. You see, Ms. Ballweg says she is advocating the “traditional” viewpoint. Huh. According to this ridiculous interpretation of orthodoxy, rural students stand to gain in some vague, unquantifiable way if otherwise superb professors leave because the university won’t give them what it gives everybody else as a result of decisions they make in their own bedrooms.
And then there are the infighters. Senate President Fred Risser, D-Madison, bemoans the fact that the state spends almost as much on corrections as it does on higher education, saying many of those incarcerated should not be rotting in prison at the expense of the taxpayer. On the other hand, Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, the perpetual scapegoat for UW’s funding woes, argues the problem lies in tuition dollars going to research that could be funded privately. Perhaps both arguments are correct, but the sense of intractability emanating from both sides indicates no solution will be found.
But as convenient as it is to levy the entire burden of guilt on the thinly insulated politicos at the other end of State Street, it is time another question was asked — are Wisconsin legislators consistently made aware of what students think? Well, uh, no. That’s because Legislative Affairs, the branch of the Associated Students of Madison founded explicitly to present the concerns of students to the Legislature, isn’t even registered to lobby in the Capitol!
If students have no way to present their grievances, then it should come as no surprise that legislators such as Ms. Ballweg are insisting they know best, or that opponents such as Messrs. Nass and Risser haven’t any clue as to the urgency of finding a compromise.
And as tuition skyrockets to Olympian heights, driven by a competitive war with rival institutions whose only result is an increasingly volatile college ranking system, and as the more bizarre inhabitants of the Legislature continue to throw up roadblocks to the few options left to the university, it is essential a semblance of a counterargument be made in the form of Legislative Affairs. The stakes are higher this time.
And this time, stubbornness on the part of a few legislators and a few feeble gestures of impotence from Legislative Affairs, the one tenuous lifeline that connects students directly to their government, will bring nothing other than the long-awaited disaster: a unified middle finger from our professors and our most qualified students as they exclaim with eloquent disgust, “Fuck this. I’m going to Michigan.”
Sam Clegg (sclegg@wisc.edu) is a freshman majoring in economics and political science.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 10:28am):
Nice. Blame everything on ASM. You're a remarkable creature, Sam.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 1:55pm):
ASM isn't registered to lobby in the capitol?!
That's like opening a bar without a liquor license.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 3:29pm):
The problem at UW-Madison in recent years is
the bumblings of outgoing chancellor John
Wiley. Let's hope the new chancellor is
a major improvement, and hired ASAP.
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 5:14pm):
Wiley a bumbler? Hardly. Wait til you see his replacement -- that person will absolutely kill us. No way can she measure up to Shalala and Wiley...
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 6:00pm):
ASM has numerous lobbing techniques... its called the united council... you pay seg fees into it.
And Wiley was great!
Anonymous (April 24, 2008 @ 7:58pm):
You, as a student, are the benefactor of a subsidized college education. I doubt whether you have contributed much in the form of taxes. Try justifying your attitude/opinion from the pov of the people who pay the freight.
The money floating around at UW-Madison is obscene. New buildings, etc, and it is not enough for you... What about the other schools in the UW system? Or does only UW-Madison matter? You have the makings of an excellent elitist.
Start cutting some of the worthless curriculums there. Everybody is being squeezed for money so UW-Madison is going to be squeezed also.
Anonymous (April 25, 2008 @ 1:25am):
The idea here is right. UW-Madison and the UW System as a whole should be receiving more of their funding from the state government instead of funding public education with increases in tuition and capital projects with increases in segregated fees. However, I would like to point out that when students lobby at the capitol through the ASM Legislative Affairs committee, they do it as constituents and therefore are not required to register.
Also, in response to 7:58, we all benefit from subsidized higher education. The UW-System puts ten dollars back into the state economy for every one dollar invested. Also, the majority of students that go to school here stay in the state. Therefore, their increased earning potential (and spending, sales tax, etc.) stays here as well.
And I would hope that Sam wants money to come to UW-Madison...because he's a student here. Please don't act like his intent was to say that no one else should get funding. UW-Madison is the most renowned institution in Wisconsin, does more research, and has more students than the other UW schools. We deserve a substantial chunk of the money. I hardly think that this course of thought justifies your accusations of elitism.
Also, what are these "worthless curriculums" of which you speak? I'm slightly worried that instead of talking about cutting capital projects or administrative staff, you're talking about sacrificing the meat of our education.
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