With less than one month left until graduation, seniors entering the job market are bolstered by the name of the school on their diploma: the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That respected name connotes a world-class education, but its reputation may be becoming compromised.
As UW’s funding situation becomes more desperate, we have arrived at a crossroads as a university. We could spiral downward and perpetually prune services, or we could take a step forward, reinvigorating present funding sources and cultivating new ones, remaining a top public research university.
The April 18 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education shed light on a funding problem many on this campus already perceive. As the article said, “Wisconsin’s stagnating state higher-education budget has forced the university to keep faculty salaries far below average.” In the political science department alone, one-fifth of the professors left last year, surely contributing to UW’s drop from 34th to 38th in U.S. News and World Report’s rankings.
Recently, I sat down with the chancellor’s chief of staff, Casey Nagy, and Assistant Director of State Relations Don Nelson to discuss the matter. In our meeting they stressed that, while support services and personnel are being eliminated because of budget issues, UW is trying to maintain the academic mission and the education experience — which is fantastic. But what happens when there is nothing left to cut except class sections or entire departments? Bleeding professors and trimming academic services inevitably compromises the quality of education. In 30 years, will graduate schools and employers see your degree from UW as merely mediocre?
It is a doomsday picture of this university’s future, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We students hold the key to strengthening and sustaining our institution. We, the direct beneficiaries of this public service, are the ones who must reengage with the state of Wisconsin and the state Legislature. If legislators hear from their constituents, especially en masse, you can bet they’ll be conscious of our concerns.
It would be pretty hard for a representative from, say, Whitewater, to ignore the clamoring of ten students — and their parents — who live in his district. If even 30 voters contacted their legislator, it would send a clear message: The quality of education is on the line. Not just for us who are already in the system, but also for future generations of Badgers.
It is a mutual exchange, and there should be no sides to take on this issue. Mr. Nagy called it “a clarity of vision and a common cause.” The state and its citizens — regardless of political persuasion — articulate needs, and the UW System plays a vital role in fulfilling them. By doing so, UW solidifies its own necessity in the hearts and minds of the state’s citizens. The resurgence of the Wisconsin Idea brings with it an imperative to not only give back to the community, but also to cultivate an understanding of how a strong public university translates into a strong Wisconsin.
And that’s where we come in. We must convey to our families and our communities back home what exactly it is all Wisconsinites are gaining through our UW education. Without that conversation, how can we expect the Legislature or the general population — especially the essential private donors — to understand?
I’ll be honest; I’ve contacted my representative about funding issues maybe twice during my undergraduate career. But this doomsday picture demonstrates how essential it is that all of us reengage. If we students don’t contact our legislators or make our priorities known, who will?
Imagine the 25,000 in-state students, supported by the 17,000 out-of-state students (and that is only here at UW-Madison, not counting the entire UW System), mobilized our families to discuss this issue with elected officials. Mr. Nelson, someone who works daily in the capitol, predicted that legislators would “stop their day” to address the common constituent concerns.
The state’s resources are certainly both finite and insufficient. That does not preclude us, however, from our commitment to UW’s future.
If anything, we students should care about the future of this university for selfish purposes. If you can’t find a reason to mobilize on its behalf, mobilize on your own behalf. Go forth into the world, but remember the name and reputation of the institution on your diploma. Because if we don’t find a way to strengthen UW now, it’s going to be that much harder when you are on the job market, and even more so for the future classes of Badgers.
Suchita Shah ([email protected]) is a senior studying neurobiology.
