Like so many other issues, Chancellor Martin’s new Badger Partnership proposal all boils down to one thing: Money. Or, rather, a lack thereof. Over the past 10 years, the amount of UW Madison’s budget coming from the state has declined at least 10 percentage points. That translates to millions of dollars. Now throw in multiple years of economic woes and the overwhelming election of state government officials who do not place higher education funding high on their priority list and you have the perfect context for administrative turmoil and uncertainty about the future. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure: Tuition is going to increase. In an attempt purported to minimize that increase, Biddy has proposed the Badger Partnership, which would partially sever this great institution from the state. In almost any other context, this plan would have virtually no chance of being adopted. However, given the current environment, it could very well represent the best hope for the university.
Under the new Badger Partnership, the school will raise tuition, but with the possible caveat that tuition would really only be raised for students who can ‘afford’ it. This differs from the current Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, in which tuition was raised for everyone but where anyone whose family made less than $80,000 did not actually pay the increase. It is probable that some similar exemption would occur under the Badger Partnership, however, according to the plan’s website, “It’s too soon to know those kinds of details”. Well, really, now, let’s just introduce more uncertainty into the equation! Because obviously no Madison student worries that if their tuition increases, they will have to leave the university.
Martin makes the argument that the proposal would give the university more flexibility in its spending, which would allow it to save money. This is a valid argument – many of the state purchasing regulations make sense for the state, but not the university. (And some of them probably do not make sense for the state, but that’s a quirk of government.) Martin also argues it would allow the university to hire more professors and teaching assistants, thereby benefiting students. On this point, Biddy and I agree. Increasing funding for the school would allow the school to hire more staff, and having more professors would translate into more – or smaller – classes. And not having to wait another semester for a class is definitely something at which we should aim.
Another facet of the plan involves the school raising more money from private funds. Given that the new Education building – which is super nice, by the way – was built entirely from donated, private funds, this could actually work. However, we probably won’t see Biddy selling pizza in the Social Sciences building to raise money for the university.
The tuition increases that would result from the university being attached to Scott Walker’s budget (shudder, he’s going to be governor in 24 days) are unknown. Perhaps Walker will surprise us all and return funding levels to those of the good old days. After all, he seems to think the past is better than the future.
But that’s just sardonic thinking on my part. In all likelihood, the state will allocate even less money to Madison under a new budget, and probably would no matter who was in office. Wisconsin has been anything but immune to the recession, and state revenue has been on a downward trend for quite some time. Walker has also already pledged to not raise taxes, and if there’s one thing the man does, it’s stick to his campaign promises. So, state funding is inevitably going to be cut. The question then becomes how the university can react.
Under the current system, there’s not much room for creativity. Tuition will go up – most likely quite steeply – and jobs will be cut. In one scenario, students will be paying for a Ferrari and getting a Prius. Under the Badger Partnership though, the university could get creative. (Let’s hope Biddy & Co. were doodlers.) In this scenario, tuition could still go up, but probably not as much, and hopefully not uniformly. If Biddy’s plan comes through, increases in tuition would be matched with increases in services. To continue with the oft-used car metaphor, students would be paying for an Audi, and getting, well, an Audi.
In that light, the Badger Partnership does not sound quite so bad. It sounds a lot better than the increases University of California students faced a few years ago. I guess what it comes down to is the realization that however much more control Biddy gets over the university, Scott Walker gets that much less. And Biddy knows how to Bucky.
Elise Swanson ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and English.
