Political officials and leaders from 30 Midwest research institutions, including University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin and Gov. Jim Doyle, attempted to find solutions to the mounting monetary challenges of conducting research at the university level at a meeting Wednesday.
University presidents, chancellors, provosts and research vice presidents who are all Midwest regional members of Association of Public Land-Grant Universities were in attendance at the APLU and Chancellors’ Regional Meeting to discuss these pressing issues and to hear from administrators from Midwest institutions about their perspectives on the future of research universities, UW Senior Special Assistant Rhonda Norsetter said.
All of those present were understandably concerned with the various problems facing research universities, yet were also completely dedicated to acquiring a method for dealing with the challenges, Martin said.
As part of the afternoon session, Gov. Jim Doyle shared his perception on how a governor views and works with a research university.
Doyle listed three major challenges which research institutions, in collaboration with state legislators, must confront in order to ensure a successful and productive future.
“State legislative bodies have to continue to make major investments even in down times,” Doyle said.
He added state investments have aided and continue to aid in the creation of a research program, which has been instrumental in UW’s transformation into an enormously important economic machine.
Another difficulty research institutions encounter is the inability to protect the integrity of the liberal arts programs when the main curricular emphasis is on technology and scientific research, Doyle said.
He added ever since UW and other public universities have become more complex, demanding and expensive, tuition increases have also emerged as aspects that must remain in check.
“Luckily, we have traditionally been a low tuition state, so we always have a little room to work with,” he said.
Since Wisconsin universities have been able to avoid extreme rises in tuition, state legislatures need not enact a tuition freeze, Doyle said. Even though this may be a good political move, it is unnecessary since the universities are not in dire straits monetarily.
The one-day event, which was hosted by Martin in collaboration with the APLU, was one of five regional meetings being held throughout the nation, Norsetter said.
She added the purpose of these meetings is to call attention to difficulties research universities encounter with their yearly budgets and to discover ways to preserve their current functions.
“These research universities conduct the majority of the nation’s basic research,” she said. “Not only are they a value to individual states, they are an important value to the whole country.”
Following a keynote address by Chairman of the Board of Cisco Systems John Morgridge, Ohio State University President Gordon Gee, University of Minnesota Vice President for Research Timothy Mulcahy and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Easter led breakout sessions to focus on how universities can stay well enough situated monetarily to conduct effective research, Norsetter said.
