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Liberal arts must not be forgotten in deficit shuffle
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Also by Ben Patterson:
- Liberal arts must not be forgotten in deficit shuffle (February 12, 2009)
- Large apartments threaten Langdon (January 30, 2009)
- Why college debt hurts generation (December 5, 2008)
- Local solutions for energy crucial (November 21, 2008)
- GOP needs to reinvent itself to survive (November 3, 2008)
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A statement released Wednesday by the
In recent years, our university has shifted its focus, but more importantly, it’s funding, from a well-rounded institution, to a narrowly focused one. If you look around campus it’s easy and obvious to see that this university has chosen to invest many of its resources in the science, business, and medicine fields, just to name a few. While these departments gain national recognition and prestige, the other departments and schools have borne the brunt of the budget cuts.
The UW system Redbook allows the public to look at the salaries of its public employees. The salaries among the different departments are clear evidence of UW’s biased attitude toward select departments. Take my department, political science, for example. Only one tenured professor makes more than $150,000 a year. Now compare that to the business department. There are two associate and two assistant professors in the finance department of the business school making more than every political science professor. Mind you, they are not even tenured professors.
I’d really enjoy hearing the university’s explanation for why untenured professors are being compensated in vastly larger amounts than proven and essential tenured professors. Additionally, there are far more students in the liberal arts departments currently than there are in either the undergraduate or graduate business programs.
Many of our liberal arts departments have an incredibly difficult time retaining professors because our university has decided these areas of education are less deserving and thus some of our best minds in these departments are leaving for better opportunities. This is a university, not a specialty school. Likewise, attracting potential professors in these neglected departments becomes increasingly more difficult when UW does not offer comparable salaries. Our university is going to continue to lose the professors we currently have and further cuts will only hamper its ability to attract new and talented minds to teach university students. It’s not just the professors recognizing this trend; UW’s potential students are also realizing this change.
The recent trend showing a decline in the amount of in-state applicants is only going to continue. Our so-called university is becoming ever more specialized and thus all of those potential students looking for a superb degree in classics, history, etc. are going to go elsewhere. If a talented student interested in one UW’s deteriorating fields had the option to attend an out of state school that gave their programs the needed attention why would he or she even consider UW?
I’m completely aware that certain programs require more funding and are generally more expensive, but it is the responsibility of a school claiming to be a university to remain competitive all fields of study it offers. UW continues to belittle departments it sees as being less profitable or undesirable.
To the Board of Regents and our chancellor: If you’re not willing to invest the resources and personnel in the departments and courses offered, then cease to continue these fields of study. Our university is becoming less a university and more a technical college. No student wants to see his or her degree’s value drop merely in an effort to maintain the status of “university.” It’s your responsibility to uphold each department to the world class level UW claims to be.
Ben Patterson (bpatterson@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in political science.
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Ben, look at the supply and demand of professors in various departments. Business and economics professors have a lot more well-paid outside options than political science professors or especially humanities professors. In order to attract any quality professors, the UW has to pay business professors more.
We can’t keep professors in the high-pay fields or the low-pay fields. Your point fails Econ 101, so maybe you should consider taking a course from one of those highly-paid professors.
One point that could explain the funding difference between political science and science, business, medical fields, etc. is that these fields have companies that provide additional funding, donations, and support. This ensures that there will be a continual stream of quality, well educated employees entering these specialized fields. This support can include teaching aides, equipment, internships, endowments for professors to name a few. So since industry can subsidize these departments, maybe the University can then be able to use its funding to make sure it attracts top talent to educate these students.
Additionally, do not forget that often times a large portion of science and engineering professors’ compensation packages comes directly from grants relating to their research and not from the university.
“There are two associate and two assistant professors in the finance department of the business school making more than every political science professor. Mind you, they are not even tenured professors.”
An assistant professor is tenure-track. An associate professor is tenured.
I am so sick of the humanities students complaining about the lack of resources given to them as compared to the science, engineering and business students. News flash: due to successful alumni and companies with a vested interest in our students, these areas get A LOT more funding from outside sources. In fact, I guarantee you that as a whole, the UW spends a lot less money on these areas of study due to these endowments. The Humanities building? UW is constantly putting money into that decaying pit. The Microbial Building? Donated by outside sources. So maybe the reason you people continue to write these articles is not because UW doesn’t value your degree but maybe that you know deep down your degree isn’t valuable.
12:15,
Ouch, but valid.
It’s like internships. An accounting internship pays real money, a liberal arts internship might pay a “stipend” if anything.
12:15. Heh. Well said.
12:15 is right, but if other schools have the money to pay them, what are we doing wrong?
10:26. It’s low tuition and most of the science and engineering facilities are paid for through grants, differential tuition, etc. UW brings in almost a BILLION dollars per year and my guess is that nearly none of that is for liberal arts “research” and after all we are a research institution. Maybe instead of complaining constantly L.A. majors should press for a tuition hike for LA’s majors. That could probably put a dent in the problem.
ever been inside of one of the research labs, even in the news facilities on engineering campus? no windows, lots of wires, etc. overall not a great spot to spend hours upon hours of your young adult life. the best part is this experience prepares you for dozens of years in a very similar setting!
LA majors may not have the fancy research support, but you know what? the trade-off is a job that is social and artistic (though yes, there is creativity in science, but it’s a different form that really doesn’t welcome self-expression). arts are not well-supported here, but they aren’t poorly supported as evidenced by the pockets or real talent that foster in the belly of humanities.
you science types can hate us LA’ers and we can do the same back at you, but at the end of the day, we really don’t envy you, no matter how favored you are by the university.