A statement released Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin indicated a sharp decrease in the amount of in-state applications the University has received compared to years past. Roughly 1,000 less applications were received by the Feb. 1 deadline. University officials could not offer any explanation for the dwindling numbers other than the sagging economy. This notion may be a good rationalization, but biased funding among the universities departments — among other factors — is the likely culprit.

In recent years, our university has shifted its focus, but more importantly, it’s funding, from a well-rounded institution, to a narrowly focused one. If you look around campus it’s easy and obvious to see that this university has chosen to invest many of its resources in the science, business, and medicine fields, just to name a few. While these departments gain national recognition and prestige, the other departments and schools have borne the brunt of the budget cuts.

The UW system Redbook allows the public to look at the salaries of its public employees. The salaries among the different departments are clear evidence of UW’s biased attitude toward select departments. Take my department, political science, for example. Only one tenured professor makes more than $150,000 a year. Now compare that to the business department. There are two associate and two assistant professors in the finance department of the business school making more than every political science professor. Mind you, they are not even tenured professors.

I’d really enjoy hearing the university’s explanation for why untenured professors are being compensated in vastly larger amounts than proven and essential tenured professors. Additionally, there are far more students in the liberal arts departments currently than there are in either the undergraduate or graduate business programs.

Many of our liberal arts departments have an incredibly difficult time retaining professors because our university has decided these areas of education are less deserving and thus some of our best minds in these departments are leaving for better opportunities. This is a university, not a specialty school. Likewise, attracting potential professors in these neglected departments becomes increasingly more difficult when UW does not offer comparable salaries. Our university is going to continue to lose the professors we currently have and further cuts will only hamper its ability to attract new and talented minds to teach university students. It’s not just the professors recognizing this trend; UW’s potential students are also realizing this change.

The recent trend showing a decline in the amount of in-state applicants is only going to continue. Our so-called university is becoming ever more specialized and thus all of those potential students looking for a superb degree in classics, history, etc. are going to go elsewhere. If a talented student interested in one UW’s deteriorating fields had the option to attend an out of state school that gave their programs the needed attention why would he or she even consider UW?

I’m completely aware that certain programs require more funding and are generally more expensive, but it is the responsibility of a school claiming to be a university to remain competitive all fields of study it offers. UW continues to belittle departments it sees as being less profitable or undesirable.

To the Board of Regents and our chancellor: If you’re not willing to invest the resources and personnel in the departments and courses offered, then cease to continue these fields of study. Our university is becoming less a university and more a technical college. No student wants to see his or her degree’s value drop merely in an effort to maintain the status of “university.” It’s your responsibility to uphold each department to the world class level UW claims to be.

Ben Patterson ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.