The reception for students finally eased up and allowed them to form a circle. It looks like this format will continue for the last two candidates as well.
Still, the punch they’re serving is filled with raspberries. Yet, no spoons. Pity.
Biddy was certainly more impressive than Sandefur. The best way to describe her style is inquisitive. But, for the remainder of these visits, let me focus on the Student Reception. Why? Frankly, the press asks about five questions and then leaves.
– “I actually want to ask you about Facebook,” she jokes. It’s obvious from the get-go that she is actually interested in what students have to say. Goes around asking students where they’re from, makes some comments about what she knows, asks them some extra questions. Makes remarks to me about the Johnson family and their philanthropy. (I’m from Racine, SC Johnson corporate headquarters.)
-One of the first questions is about professor salaries. She says that during her time at Cornell, they tried to identify their high-class professors and work on keeping them. However, she notes that many of the professors have an emotional investment in moving once they have that mindset. However, one notable thing she said on the subject was that in order to bring Cornell prof. salaries up to the median it “meant taking money from other places” to fill in those gaps. She made a bold decision earlier in her career by proposing the biological sciences break up into different schools. That sort of reorganization comes up later.
When asked about the Legislature supporting this university and the argument made that there needs to be a greater focus on undergraduate education (Stephen Nass to the rescue!) she said that UW has to make a greater case for the benefit of students being at at a research university of this caliber. That having been said, she noted “it’s unrealistic to think they will cover the costs.”
Someone asks about Shared Governance. Strangely enough, she supports letting students make a number of decisions on their own and said she’d be in favor of an “open door” policy in meeting with her. At Cornell, there was a policy of posting office hours on the Chancellor’s door for meeting times. She said she would support having something along those lines here. Lots of looks of joy from people in the room. The question is how do you actually make yourself accessible? Chancellor Wiley usually spent more of his time traveling and fund-raising than sitting in his office. But “Biddy” seems better at student relations from her outward demeanor, so maybe that’s possible.
At some point, we asked about segregated fees. Probably not the best idea. WISPIRG was there, which led to the oft-neglected issue of contract status. She was trying to understand the idea, but most of those in the room who tried to explain realized from the get go that it’s not appropriate for a discussion like this. I’m surprised she didn’t just say “Well, I don’t know enough about your system” and move on. She really tried to get a firm grasp on our system of distribution. All in good time.
An interesting question came from Shayna Hetzel (graduate student, former WUD bigwig and current Union membership director) near the end of the discussion: How do you address the increasing centralization in universities? She cites a few examples where, for instance, a medical school would partner together with the arts to create a more integrated learning experience. The status of the university goes up, but the ranking of the individual department goes down. Biddy acknowledges that a balance needs to be struck, but seems to come down on the side of a liberalizing experience. Mentions a program run at Cornell that had everyone reading the same book before school started for the purposes of an integrated learning program. In the end she says that there is a benefit to grouping together sciences and humanities to “create a greater sense of intellectual community and shared good.” Hmm. Was Meiklejohn house looking for an upgrade?
Our Editorial Board Chairman Ryan Masse asked one question in particular that got an interesting answer. He asked what her opinion was on “racial preferences” being exercised by the university.
Martin: What do you mean by that?
Masse: Affirmative Action.
Martin: And what do you mean by affirmative action, exactly?
Masse: Well…racial preferences! *followed by some laughter*
While she admitted this is a “naive view” given that she doesn’t know the processes and limitations of the university, she mentioned possibly trying to look more toward out of state residents given the low amount of diversity here. Obviously, this is not all that possible given the 75% in-state quota. That is, unless the holistic admissions process takes it up a notch. Considering she said the university should “push as hard as possible within the law” to achieve diversity, perhaps we’ll see more aggressive interpretation of that system?
In terms of personal interaction, she seems like she’d be a great benefit to the student body. Whether she’d be as active in fundraising as Wiley was has yet to be seen, but she seems to have a good idea of how professors need to be retained, she has a strong humanities background that could keep certain L&S departments afloat and she certainly has a more expansive vision for this university than what Sandefur mentioned. Several times, she mentioned globalization as a force to be reckoned with in the international learning community and mentioned Cornell’s campuses abroad.
The problem, of course, is defending these stances and funding them. And if that’s her weak spot, it certain is Wednesday’s candidate’s forte.