In light of impending budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin System, Interim Chancellor David Ward spoke about the future of the University of Wisconsin in a public forum Wednesday evening.
Ward spoke along with a panel made up of Sara Goldrick-Rab, a UW educational policy studies and sociology associate professor, and Joel Rogers, a UW law and political science professor.
The panel addressed issues relating to higher education and solutions to the problems institutions like UW currently face. Ward said the need for UW to take action and make changes to its own institution is crucial to the solution for decreasing public funding.
“Who is going help regain the public nature of our public environment if we don’t do it to ourselves”? he asked. “What we do and what we are as a public institution is in crisis, and that’s what we’re facing.”
Ward said over time, the nation has moved from a place where tuition was nothing to worry about to a place where it is “moderate at best.” He said the increasing burden on individuals to pay tuition with less state contribution creates a situation where need-based aid drives tuition up to a point where it cannot be pushed any more.
Ward also said in the dialogue surrounding higher education issues he felt reallocation is a better word than flexibility. By this, he said he meant that innovating and expanding upon current structures in the institution are more effective than simply being flexible.
“Let’s be honest; we want to reallocate resources, not flexibility,” Ward said. “I think if we could push reallocation and push innovation, we might have a chance at making arguments which allow us to maintain that core budget.”
Goldrick-Rab said in her view, a major problem facing the university is an emerging “rhetoric of us and them.” She said in addition to this kind of narrative being present between university members and state policymakers, a divide among faculty also exists as well as a need to collaborate as a community.
“We’re not making common cause, frankly, and it is contributing to the fact that we’re unsuccessful with our arguments,” she said. “There’s a rhetorical and emotional piece to all of this.”
During the forum, Rogers said he also felt a major problem is a public divide over the issue of higher education. He added working together is beneficial when seeking to overcome budget cuts.
Associated Students of Madison Chair Allie Gardner attended the forum and said in an email to The Badger Herald that Goldrick-Rab’s point on faculty togetherness were innovative.
“The type of collaboration being described was a sense of solidarity – not just as faculty, but as citizens of Wisconsin,” Gardner said. “The university is not separate from the state, but a fundamental component that contributes to our economy, our lives and our children’s lives.”
Overall, Ward said he is not sure a short-term solution exists to problems facing UW and higher education in general, but that aiming for long term solutions and a dialogue of reallocation of resources within the institution should be beneficial.
