About a year ago, documents with New Badger Partnership details leaked to an agitated campus community and created a poly-headed PR-nightmare-monster for the University of Wisconsin’s administration.  

It came at a time when many in the state and UW were already tense due to budget cuts and policies coming down from the Capitol. Whether the New Badger Partnership plans were made in earnest or not, the critics cast the plan as backdoor dealing with the Walker administration and cultivated a mistrust of the UW administration. 

In its more recent pursuits to become more efficient, it seems the current UW administration learned from the New Badger Partnership’s mistake: Clandestine planning, even in nascent stages, can be destructive.  

Earlier last year, the university hired an outside consulting firm to figure out how the university can change some of its practices to save money. The initiative is a worthy and necessary effort, especially as the university braces for budget cuts upon budget cuts. With the $300 million in cuts the UW System will have to work around in the next two years, every bit of savings will help. Based on the Huron Consulting Firm’s findings, UW can improve purchasing necessary supplies, leasing space and communicating. The initiative has been dubbed Administrative Excellence.

The first phase gathered that data, pinpointing areas where UW was inefficient and needlessly hemorrhaging money. In the second phase – an ongoing process that started in November 2011 – groups are being formed to make an execution plan. According to the Administrative Excellence timeline, phase three will be implementation. 

Based on the amount of documents, slideshows and graphs released on the UW website, it seems as though the powers that be on Bascom Hill believe few things inspire students’ hearts and minds more than administrative procedure. 

Sarcasm aside, administration at a university is important – it’s like a frame around a painting. A good frame showcases and secures its contents, and often the simplest of its kind are the best. However, as it turned out, some of UW’s administrative practices were not so simple. The preliminary results and recommendations from Administrative Excellence revealed scattered internal business proceedings, often citing lack of consistency in campus-wide policy. Notoriously, the recommendations highlight one ridiculous and unnecessary practice of ordering 250 types of black pens. 

Furthermore, it is an expensive undertaking – the director from Huron is making $272 per hour – even with the discounted analysis rate. The plans project tangible results, and it is going to be important to make sure those are met. The likelihood of achieving the projected savings will be clearer as the project moves forward, and hopefully the cost of hiring Huron will not eclipse the short-term savings.  

It is tempting to think there would be no need for a watchdog with so much information publicly available, but it is still important for press and student leaders to remain attentive as the phases move forward. Administrative Excellence is nowhere near as big a project as the New Badger Partnership was, but its efforts at transparency are nonetheless recognized. Hopefully the level of transparency will be an example for future administrative endeavors and plans at UW. 

Addie Blanchard ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.