Chancellor Biddy Martin spoke to Madison business leaders at a luncheon Monday to candidly address issues of affordability and funding facing the University of Wisconsin in the coming years.
Martin, who took the reins of chancellor in September, answered questions from guests and members of WisBusiness.com and Madison Magazine, who co-sponsored the event at the Madison Club.
Many of the questions from attendees focused on concerns about UW’s future due to the economic crisis. Martin acknowledged UW will not receive all the funding from the state it needs, adding that it will be “very difficult to maintain and enhance” the university’s standing.
“I think it’s unrealistic to imagine that tuition won’t rise,” Martin said. “There’s just no way around it, especially at a moment like this.”
To keep UW affordable, Martin said she hopes to increase the availability of financial aid.
“We’re not yet where we need to be in having raised enough need-based financial aid to ensure that every student, regardless of economic circumstance, can attend UW-Madison without hardship,” Martin said. “But that’s where we need to go.”
Though confident that cuts in state tax dollars will come, Martin stressed the importance of keeping the “gem” of education and research that UW has become.
To do that, Martin said salaries of professors, researchers and administrators must go up, otherwise UW will lose a competitive edge.
“What I’m arguing is that we’re in a different market, and if the state wants to benefit from the fact that this university can actually play and win in a highly competitive international market, then we have to pay,” Martin said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Speaking on academics, Martin told the business leaders she has seen an increased interest in capitalism and entrepreneurship.
Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship, echoed Martin’s thoughts, saying a program at Sellery Hall has courted interested students toward becoming entrepreneurs.
“We’ve actually had enough demand that the business school offers an undergraduate major in entrepreneurship,” Olszewski said. “That’s in response to students having a greater and greater interest.”
In terms of what she’d like to improve, Martin said she hopes communication with the public can be more positive.
“I just feel that our communications function is sort of back on its heels and that we’re very reactive and defensive and that we talk to the public primarily about problems that we’ve been charged with,” Martin said. “We explain ourselves a lot.”
But Martin said changing that reactionary culture would be difficult due to a lack of workforce in the chancellor’s office.
She said she visited UW-Milwaukee last month and found out Chancellor Carlos Santiago has eight vice chancellors, compared to UW-Madison’s four.
“I’ll never get to eight,” Martin said. “The fact that I have no vice chancellor for university relations, no vice chancellor for student affairs, no vice chancellor for a couple of other functions that most major universities have has really surprised me.”
Martin closed by discussing the need to replace the Humanities Building and praising Madison for the city’s “friendly residents” and close relationship with the university.
