The University of Wisconsin-Madison will be facing
challenges in upcoming years, according to a presentation given by UW-Madison Provost
Patrick Farrell at a UW System Board of Regents meeting Friday.

Farrell compared UW-Madison to other schools, including
Harvard University, Yale University, the University of California-Los Angeles
and the University of Michigan, and said competition is rising and UW-Madison's
financial disadvantage is becoming more evident.

"We're an extraordinarily successful university, but there's
no guarantee that that will continue," Farrell said. "To attain and maintain
that level of excellence requires internal effort, discipline and focus, and we
need your help. We cannot do this by ourselves."

Farrell said the regents could play an important role in
helping UW-Madison see the kind of success that it currently has in the future.

"We have a lot of opportunities, and without sounding too
jingoistic, we have opportunities that Harvard doesn't have," Farrell said.
"What they don't have is the kind of students we have, both the quantity and,
in a certain sense, the quality. They don't have the culture we have."

Farrell said UW-Madison's reputation could be maintained by
understanding the differences between past and future successes, building
partnerships and extracting more value from existing investments.

Board of Regents President Mark Bradley said he was
impressed by Farrell's presentation.

"Instead of saying these are problems and asking for pity,
he said, 'These are problems, and here is how we are beginning to address them,'
and I think that's a sign of good management," Bradley said.

Bradley, who has two degrees from UW-Madison, said he has
always compared the university to some of the most elite private schools in the
country and said UW-Madison has a culture that is different from other schools.

"The test for that is to talk to mid-level and senior
professors who have started their careers at other campuses and came here …
[and] ask them what part of the package that you accepted attracted you,"
Bradley said. "It isn't the salary. It might be the facilities, but almost
always the ability to work with colleagues and it's the ability to work with top-notch
graduate students."

Regent Brent Smith said the UW System and UW-Madison must
keep looking toward the future in order to stay competitive in the
high-education environment that is rapidly changing.

"On the one hand, there's a lot of pride in being able to
show that we are certainly on that level," Smith said. "But on the other hand,
it really opens your eyes up to know the private investment that is there for
those particular ones and how difficult it is for us to compete against those,
dollar-wise."

The regents also continued their conversation on segregated
fees from Thursday's meeting.

Regent Jeffrey Bartell, who said he disapproved of UW System
President Kevin Reilly's decision to not allow the fees to fund non-UW employee
salaries and pay off-campus rent for student organizations Thursday, said he
had reconsidered his feelings.

Bartell said he spoke with Farrell, who assured him the
UW-Madison administration will work with the organizations affected by the
policy changes, but added if the new policies do not work out, "the issues will
be before the board."

The regents also heard an update on the Growth Agenda for
Wisconsin and approved both a "differential tuition initiate" for UW-La Crosse
and a new policy requiring UW System faculty to more accurately report sick
leave.