Summary
Chancellor Mnookin's remarks at the Lunch with the Chancellor event.
University of Wisconsin–Madison
October 24, 2024
Good afternoon everyone! It’s wonderful to see you all here, and a warm hello to those joining online.
Can we have a big round of applause for WFAA’s current president and chief advancement officer who will very soon be president and CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association? Thank you, Alisa Robertson!
Let’s also recognize the transformative leadership of Mike Knetter, who will be staying on at WFAA as a strategic advisor on business development and investments. Mike, thank you!
We have student leaders with us today representing some of our most active campus organizations. They’re members of Vice Chancellor Lori Reesor’s student cabinet. Students, please stand or give a wave. Thank you for being here!
And thanks to all of you. This has been a year full of challenges as well as exciting opportunities, and your leadership and trusted advice are critical in both realms.
Let’s give you a round of applause — thank you!
Great news from campus
There are lots of exciting things happening – let me give you a peek at just a few:
<<slide>> First – we’ve brought in some talented new leaders since we last met.
- Dorota Brzezińska — new Vice Chancellor for Research, who couldn’t be here today.
And three who are here:
- Craig Thompson — new VC for University Relations, succeeding Charlie Hoslet.
- Marcelle Haddix — new Dean of the School of Education, succeeding Diana Hess.
- And Jonathan Levine – succeeding Mark Markel as dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine.
I’ll ask these new leaders and our other Vice Chancellors, the Provost, and our Deans and Directors to please stand or give a wave so we may recognize you for your service. Thank you!
We also have national searches underway for:
- SMPH dean/Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs to succeed Bob Golden
- And a College of Engineering dean to succeed Ian Robertson.
These are incredibly big shoes to fill, and the high quality of the applicants we’re seeing is really gratifying — renowned leaders and scholars from all over the country want to be here at UW–Madison!
<<slide>> We also have lots of terrific new students on campus (as you know if you’ve tried to walk or drive anywhere during class passing time).
- 8,500 new freshmen and 1,400 new transfer students selected from a record-breaking 70,000 applicants (2,000 more than we received just last year!)
This is the first incoming class since the Supreme Court decision that made it illegal to consider an applicant’s race as a factor in admissions.
That was only one factor in our holistic process but losing it did have an impact — our freshman class is slightly less racially diverse than last year’s.
We’re doubling down on recruitment and outreach that recognizes that talent exists in many places and shows up in different ways.
This is going to be a continued priority for us. We cannot be excellent without diversity of all kinds — and racial diversity is an important part of that, along with many kinds of diversity of identity, of background, and of beliefs and perspectives, part of the pluralistic tapestry critical for our excellence.
<<slide>> Last month we announced the largest gift in the history of our College of Engineering — $75 million from Marv and Jeff Levy to create the Phillip A. Levy Engineering Center.
This building is very long-awaited, as some of you know, and with the state funding we secured thanks to the governor and legislature, we’re now nearly ¾ of the way to our goal to raise $150 million.
This facility is going to transform our ability to recruit and retain great people — and allow us to open up 1,000 more spots for undergraduate engineers so we can better meet the urgent needs of Wisconsin employers and keep more in-state students in the state rather than sending them to Illinois and Purdue!
The Phillip Levy Center is one of four major new facilities underway right now.
- You may have seen the progress just across the street on Morgridge Hall (planned for move-in next summer), the incredible new home for the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences.
- And we broke ground on Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall — it’s going to be a beautiful space, and it’s the first new building we’ve built for the humanities since 1962.
- On the athletics side of campus, we’re also making progress on replacing the Shell and the McClain Center with a new state-of-the-art indoor practice and training facility for Badger football.
I want to thank the many of you here today whose support and advocacy have helped make these amazing facilities possible.
And as always it’s an exciting year for Badger athletics.
Our football Badgers are finding their footing — as Coach Fickell said recently:
“There’s an incredible mountain ahead of us that we know we’ve got to continue to climb.”
Over the last few games, I have seen — as I hope you have — that they’re taking steps up that mountain and I’m rooting not only for us to continue our 23-year bowl streak, but for an EXCELLENT homecoming game and a big W against undefeated Penn State. Who will join me in hoping for that? Make some noise, please!
And the Wisconsin women are again a force — anyone else excited about our outstanding volleyball and hockey teams this season?
As you know, we’re in a moment of historic change in college athletics. You may have seen the announcement earlier this week about the dramatically changing landscape in college athletics that includes an upcoming settlement that provides the opportunity and, frankly, the expectation to share revenues directly with some of our student athletes.
We support that in principle. It will also present significant financial challenges. And amid change and challenge, we will remain committed to the values that have sustained Badger athletics for generations. I know you may have questions about this – happy to talk more in the Q & A in just a few minutes.
Final news item to share: While rankings need to be taken with a grain – or a dollop – of salt, I’m pleased to share that our rankings are strong!
- Washington Monthly just ranked UW–Madison the #1 public university in the nation — up from #2 last year.
- We watch this one closely because it looks at social mobility of graduates and commitment to public service — both of which go right to the heart of our mission.
- U.S. News & World Report now ranks us #13 among all public universities in the U.S.
- I see our School of Education folks here — we’re very proud of our outstanding SoE — now ranked #1 in the nation!
- Our undergraduate program in Computer Science jumped six spots to #9 among publics (#16 overall) in the U.S. News rankings. The biggest leap among the top 25 schools.
- And I want to thank one person stepping down from his role who has made contributions to this space. Tom Erickson, the founding director of our College of Computer, Data and Information Sciences. Tom where are you? Thank you for your tremendous contribution to this campus!
- We’re very fortunate that Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau has agreed to succeed Tom on an interim basis — he will be an outstanding leader for the school. Remzi, where are you? Thank you!
<<slide>> Our renowned faculty are one big reason why we were named, last spring, to the Forbes list of ‘Public Ivies’— one of 10 universities on that list (our last-on-the-list spot doesn’t suggest a ranking; the list is alphabetical).
None of this would be happening without YOUR support. For every educational opportunity you help us develop, every scholarship you fund, every professorship you’ve created, and every facility you’ve helped us build — THANK YOU!
I also want to give you a peek at a couple of major initiatives that have taken off since we last met.
Free expression, pluralism, belonging
The first is to move us closer to the place where every person can feel a sense of belonging here, even when engaging with points of view radically different from their own.
As you know, this past year has been very challenging at times. We’ve felt the polarizing impact of national and international events, including the often toxic political divides that can be especially apparent in this complicated swing state where, at the moment, you cannot turn on the television for 3 minutes without seeing one – or three – political ads!
I’m happy to tell you that spring semester ended on a really positive note, with a commencement that felt even bigger and better than usual. Many of our graduates had missed their high school graduations because of COVID and they were ready for a big celebration!
We spent much of the summer looking at how we safeguard the precious right to free expression AND ensure that we’re creating the conditions for the thoughtful and productive exchange of ideas.
- One result is a new online Free Expression course that all of our new students were required to take this year to help them understand their rights and responsibilities. If you’re curious about it, feel free to take it too.
- Another is a new Expressive Activity Policy that consolidates and clarifies our existing policies to make them more understandable, with practical examples of what is, and isn’t, allowed on our campus.
- Most are common sense: Can you use a bullhorn? Yes, within certain parameters. Can you use a bullhorn while standing outside of a classroom building during finals? Absolutely not.
- And finally, we have a new policy on when we make public statements on behalf of the institution on local, national, or international issues and events.
- This is a hot topic for university leaders around the country, who are increasingly called upon to make statements about national or global events.
- But I’ve come to believe that — however well-intended — these statements aren’t a good idea. The university should be a place for many voices, but it – and I – need to be cognizant of the downsides of speaking with an institutional voice, in part because doing so may have a chilling effect on other voices within our campus community.
- So going forward, unless an issue or event directly relates to our operations or mission, you will not see many (or any) official statements from me or any other UW–Madison leader.
- But you will see faculty and staff speaking publicly, as they always have, to share their knowledge and perspectives. That’s what the Wisconsin Idea is all about!
- The goal is to create more — not less — space for dialogue and debate (and sifting and winnowing). For civil engagement across different points of view. For the intellectual pluralism that sparks learning and new knowledge.
At this great pluralistic university, we take as a basic truth that it’s important to engage with ideas different from our own. We believe in and support that fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone truth can be found.
But we also know words can hurt people’s sense of belonging and wellbeing.
And so we’ll continue to ask with some urgency how we can create the possibility for productive disagreement alongside a shared commitment to civility and decency.
Wisconsin RISE and entrepreneurship initiatives
Switching gears to a very different kind of initiative — I hope that some of you have already heard of Wisconsin RISE, which I announced earlier this year.
<<slide>> RISE stands for Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence.
This is an ambitious cross-campus effort to bring together multiple disciplines in areas where we have existing strengths to tackle some of the world’s grand challenges and create a constellation of new opportunities for our students.
We kicked it off earlier this year and now have three RISE initiatives.
- RISE-AI, focused on building our capacity across the campus in artificial intelligence.
- RISE-EARTH, focused on building on our already excellent work in sustainability that covers a lot of ground, from climate science to public policy to green energies and more.
- And RISE-THRIVE, focused on positioning us at the forefront of innovation on the ‘healthspan’ — helping people to live not just longer lives, but better, healthier lives.
We’ve just begun hiring, with a goal of growing the faculty by 120-150 top scholars over the next several years.
But this isn’t just about adding people. It’s a discovery mission! RISE will provide incentives and tools to allow our faculty who are working on similar problems in very different fields to find each other and develop new collaborations.
And let me be clear: We already have phenomenal research happening in every department on this campus related to these areas – we are building on strength. And we also have a huge amount of amazing research that has nothing to do with RISE — I never want to leave the impression that RISE is our entire focus.
But it IS one important tool to position us to make a meaningful and lasting impact on the world.
<<slide>>Hand-in-hand with RISE is a new effort to turbocharge entrepreneurship on our campus — another area where we already have enormous strengths.
<<slide>>I appointed this all-star work group to look at how we might lead in the entrepreneurial economy and chart a new direction that fully embraces entrepreneurship as central to our Wisconsin Idea mission.
They looked at a wide range of other schools — from Stanford and MIT to Purdue and U of I — and found that many of them aspire to foster entrepreneurship campuswide, but few have achieved that.
We just released their findings and recommendations — you can find them on our website.
I believe UW–Madison can be the premier university in the country for entrepreneurship with a novel campuswide strategy for recruiting, developing, and launching entrepreneurs.
I’m thrilled to tell you that Professor Jon Eckhardt has agreed to serve as a one-year special advisor to further build out this initiative. Jon’s experience and background and vast network make him the perfect person to take this on.
Jon — where are you? Thank you!
And now, following tradition, it’s time for the quiz!
Quiz
Please locate the paper and pencils on your table. Ready?
<<slide>>
#1 – Four more schools joined the Big Ten this year — including “the other UW,” the University of Washington. How many members does the conference now have?
A. 16
B. 17
C. 18
<<slide>>
#2 – What do these current students and recent UW grads have in common?
<<slide>>
#3 – This object made headlines last week. What is it?
<<slide>>
#4 – And finally: Which of the following high-impact research projects is happening here at UW?
A. Generating plasma with a fusion device, an important step toward bringing fusion energy to the marketplace.
B. Using bacteria to deliver cancer-fighting nano-drugs directly into cancerous tumors.
C. Developing a system that allows farmers to detect agricultural pests much quicker and more accurately by listening to the sounds they make while munching on plants.
D. Creating new understanding of the role of geography in influencing one’s political participation.
E. All of the above
<<slide>> How many schools in the Big Ten? <<click>> 18.
<<slide>> What do these folks have in common? <<click>> These 17 current students and recent grads all competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The women were standouts! They won medals in soccer, volleyball, and rugby.
<<slide>>This is called <<click>> the Nerve Ninja, invented by a group of our students. It’s a combination forceps and scalpel, designed to reduce nerve damage during surgery.
I’m delighted to tell you it won first place against strong competition last week at the National Collegiate Inventors Competition!
<<slide>> Which of these research projects is happening here? <<click>> All of the above.
State budget
<<slide>> Finally — it wouldn’t be Lunch with the Chancellor without mention of the state budget!
The new budget cycle is underway, and Gov. Evers has signaled that he intends to make the Universities of Wisconsin a major priority.
The Regents’ budget proposal includes:
- Increased state support. The university system is now 43rd out of the 50 states in state investment. Here at UW–Madison, less than 15% of our budget comes from the state.
- And a significant investment in our infrastructure.
- We now have $2.2 billion in deferred maintenance — up from $1.5 billion a year ago.
- We urgently need additional housing for our students.
- And we’ve got two departments left in the Humanities building that we need to move. The budget request would create new space for the Art Department and the Mead Witter School of Music in the Art Lofts near the Kohl Center.
- And we’re again pursuing program revenue bonding
- We’d like to stop having to go to the other end of State St. for legislative approval every time we need to renovate an old building or build a new residence hall using our own money.
We anticipate seeing a number of new faces in the legislature following the election. My priority will be getting to know all of them and meeting with leaders on both sides of the aisle.
As our most persuasive advocates, you can help in a few different ways:
- If you’re a Wisconsin resident, please consider connecting directly with your legislators to talk about the university’s statewide impact. ESPECIALLY if you are outside of Dane County. Legislators tell me that they don’t hear about our importance very often from their constituents. You have enormous power to help.
- We also have an online petition to legislators that I hope you’ll sign. Watch for an e-mail from WAA with a link to add your signature.
I also want you to know that we’re now preparing for a new fundraising campaign.
This university is in a really different place thanks to the work so many of you did with Chancellor Blank in the All Ways Forward campaign.
We’re in the early stages of preparing for our next comprehensive campaign, which will include high-level themes that build upon existing strengths and address complex world problems.
I am confident that with your help, we can reach new levels of excellence and eminence. Your generosity fuels our excellence.
And it will take all of us. So stay tuned!
<<slide>>In closing, I want to thank you for the support and wisdom and friendship (and the occasional critique) you’ve provided over this past year.
I couldn’t ask for better partners as we begin a new year with challenges but also so many exciting opportunities to build our excellence and further to cement our claim as one of the nation’s greatest universities!
We cannot do it in a day, or even a year. We cannot do it alone. But together, we can. And together we will.
Thanks for all you do to make this university extraordinary, and On, Wisconsin!
Distinguished Service Award
To select the inaugural winner of any top-level award is incredibly difficult — and doubly so when there are so many potential honorees who have contributed mightily to the university.
But when we looked at who’s been directly involved with the university — sharing ideas and advice … helping develop programs … and working in ways that are truly transformational across the campus — it became clear that we would honor not one, but two people.
A couple who has been giving back to this great university since 1967, when they wrote their first check to UW for $5.
- Who went on to build state-of-the art facilities that have brought our research and teaching and public service to whole new levels of excellence …
- To create the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars that’s awarded scholarships to more than 28,000 Wisconsin college students…
- And to design and fund an innovative matching-gift program that’s inspired hundreds of donors to join them in creating new professorships.
A couple who has dedicated their lives to changing lives, and who exemplify the ideals of the Distinguished Service Award.
And so today I am tremendously happy to announce that the inaugural winners of this new award are John and Tashia Morgridge!
<<slide>> Their impact stretches to every corner of this campus.
And as they’ve supported and created excellence across so many realms, they also have been an example to us all for how to support and celebrate one another. As Tashia once said:
“We never talk about just John Morgridge or Tashia Morgridge. We have been partners all the way along.”
They even celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary by giving one another named chairs — John’s in the Department of Computer Sciences and Tashia’s at the School of Education.
John and Tashia, we extend our boundless gratitude and admiration to you.
Please join us on stage to receive the Distinguished Service Award.