Comments for UW-Madison in an Economic Recession and a Changing World

Comment on Capital Times: University of Wisconsin community prepares for funding cuts by Jon Boyd

Jon Boyd — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:35:17 +0000

A rather frightening article. One has to wonder how much more cuts in university budgets we will see.

Comment on Chancellor Martin follows up on forums by william l. williamson

william l. williamson — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:22:07 +0000

As a member of the UW Community, I think the image of the University is important. Bascom Hall is the single most important symbol, and I always regret its feeble appearance at night. The dim light on the white columns is sad, especially when contrasted with the dramatic light on the Old Red Gym.

I know that the current interest in energy savings may be considered a reason to economize, but this symbolic image seems to me worth the effort.

Comment on Chancellor’s statement on Gov. Doyle’s state budget by Dan

Dan — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:05:57 +0000

This does not make sense…if all faculty and staff will not have a raise in the salary, why are football coaches having a bonus? (See here.)

Maybe the university should allocate and use its money more wisely. We have lost a lot of wonderful professors who went to other schools for more opportunities that UW-Madison has the potential to give. Instead, we spend those money on the wrong places.

The Breese Terrace Union is now in the old UHS building. I do have to applaud people for using old buildings for a different purpose, but the union will be a waste of resource if no student use it.

Comment on Day four: Idea roll call by Peter

Peter — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:22:14 +0000

Encourage more telecommuting for staff, when possible. It saves gas, cuts down on traffic, and alleviates parking pressures. I commute 40 miles every day, and can accomplish virtually anything at home that I can at work. And it means an hour less time spent driving. Of course, not everyone can do this, but when possible, encouraging telecommuting, say, once a week, would seem to make a lot of sense.

Comment on Chancellor’s statement on Gov. Doyle’s state budget by Tom

Tom — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:23:56 +0000

I had flashbacks to my education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities when I heard the budget cutbacks. From 1999-2003 my in-state tuition increased 25% over those four years. It seems like at the head of most budget shortfalls, higher education students bear the brunt of the State’s shortcomings in balancing the budget. My wife’s program lost 6 employees in less than 6 months, and is having a hard time recruiting quality professors/assistant professors to fill their vacancies. Her primary advisor just recently decided to stay on, luckly, as her primary dissertation advisor would have left her alone to trudge through the next two years unadvised by a qualified professor.

The message of cutting higher education funding at the expense of student financial accounts is that we are not a valuable resource in Wisconsin. I WILL be leaving the state to find employment elsewhere in the coming year once my research and thesis is complete. The message is clear, “higher education is not a priority in the State of Wisconsin”. The budget shortfall and effect on students is a disgrace to all of us hard-working students. The effects will run deeper than graduates leaving the state, but that is the effect it has on me and my wife. Staff will continue to leave, and departments will suffer. I am already seeing it within my department as one Researh Associate cannot stay on, and will be moving onto Ball State most likely.

Sorely disappointed yet again,

Tom

Comment on Chancellor’s statement on Gov. Doyle’s state budget by Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:56:04 +0000

I honestly beleive that the universities, including the university of wisconsin, are one of biggest reasons why the middle class is being destroyed. My arguement for this case is shown time and time again when kids such as myself pay up to 120,000 dollars get an education and turn around and get 30,000 dollar a year jobs. How do your really believe that someone will every pay off the debt that large with such little jobs out there? I am one of the fortunate kids out there who has a job that pays me 20 dollars an hour, and even till working 60 hours a week all summer i barely make it through the school year. That right there is a joke. Also i see time and time again, especially in the math and physics department, is professors that cant teach. These people are usually here only to service the university in research. But what you people should remember is I, the student, am paying the bill i should be made number one, not your research. This country and its universities are now run like a business and thats just make me sick. So what i say is you should do some cutting do you building projects, for you guys have no money i dont understand how you can be building so much right now, and take some away from your research funding. Such building like Union South do not need to be torn down but because you people think it does.

Comment on Day three: idea roll call by Kathleen Glander

Kathleen Glander — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:14:30 +0000

Please process TER payments electronic by direct deposit–we all get our paychecks that way–instead of US mail paper checks.

Comment on Day three: idea roll call by Kathleen Glander

Kathleen Glander — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Stop sending paper mailings to individuals; use email lists instead. This includes: DoIT course/equipment fliers (which go directly to trash upon delivery by probaly 99% of recipients); UW res halls–coupons, searching for student employees; round table notices. Also, stop mailing paper unclassified leave statements. They’ve been available/printable online for about 1 year, yet we still receive them in campus mail. I assume they will eventually be reported electronically, but at least for now we can print our own faster, and save the printing of the addresses and all the time and handliing to sort and deliver via campus mail (often relatively late for those of us off campus).

Comment on Chancellor’s statement on Gov. Doyle’s state budget by Mary

Mary — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:53:46 +0000

This university is so not nimble when comes to sharing human resources across departments and colleges, and, sometimes, even within departments. We’re not set up for someone to raise their hand and say “I can do more” or “Maybe we could do it this way” as the risk of getting one’s head shot off is just too high. People are so busy trying to preserve their own resources, there’s no concern for the common good. Example: A department trying to justify a course that’s not really needed simply to preserve the funding for that course because “if we give it up now, we’ll never get it back.” There should be some sort of budgetary incentive for sacrifice….allow more carry overs and maybe allow departments who propose a cut to keep 50% of the funds with complete control (within statutory guidelines, of course) over how that money is spent. I don’t know if these are practical ideas, but somehow we have to get everyone to look beyond their own small fiefdom.

Comment on Day four: Idea roll call by Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:57:53 +0000

First idea: Giving up pay raises and agreeing to employee furloughs would do a lot to preserve jobs and programs at UW-Madison and throughout the System. Furloughs are democratic, temporary, and they can be implemented quickly and efficiently. Because lower paid employees are often living paycheck-to-paycheck, they should take the smallest hit, while the highest paid should take the most furlough days.

When you compare the work time lost to furloughs to the amount of time currently being spent on discussing how to cut the budget, you would probably come out ahead with furloughs. And professional staff will continue to do the work that needs to be done, despite having to take mandatory “days off.”

Second idea: Stop tearing down and putting up buildings. If the hemorraghing of faculty positions is not staunched we will have a lot of empty new buildings, with no one to teach in them. And why replicate the same mistakes of the 1970s: putting up badly designed, poorly built buildings that we now have to tear down because they were built by the lowest bidder? Just ask maintenance staff which buildings need the most work; it is generally the new ones. It’s time to turn John Wiley’s building-binge supertanker around. The argument that “the money for buildings comes from a different source” just doesn’t hold up in this economic climate.