Fearless Sifting

The introduction in the official UW-Madison news releases makes the new UW Foundation fund raising initiative, entitled “Great people. Great place.”, sound like it’s definitely on the right track.

Three synergistic components define a world-class university: the most promising undergraduates, top graduate and professional students, and stellar faculty. Take away any of the three and what remains is just another university.

Sometimes I think the people running the UW overlook the need for quality people to fill all of the new buildings that are being constructed. The inclusion of top graduate students as a priority also highlights a group that is vital to the UW, but often overlooked when talking about how to improve our university. Undergraduate issues traditionally get the most attention and the recent chancellor search has placed a spotlight on low professor salaries, but support for graduate students is an issue not often discussed. Undergrads rely on them for help as TA’s and both undergrads and professors need them when it comes to research. The importance of grad students to professors is best put by a UW-Madison professor commenting on this blog

Second, faculty salaries are a big deal, for the UW System and nationally. Madison faculty are at the bottom of an underpaid group, in some ways. But there’s an even bigger concern for a lot of us in Madison, which you mention at the end of the post: That’s being able to have the best grad students and the best staff, classified and academic. I’m willing to work for less than I can make elsewhere (faculty are still in the middle class), but I’m emphatically not willing to work where I can’t have excellent grad students and good support. Grad student packages offered by lesser schools are often twice or more than twice ours.

The initiative will dramatically increase funding for undergrad need-based aid, an increase that is greatly needed as I can attest to from personal experiences.

A year ago, the UW Foundation board of directors voted unanimously to allocate $20 million for a need-based financial aid challenge program. Unrestricted campuswide gifts will be matched dollar for dollar; endowment-level gifts directed to a specific school or college will be matched 50 cents to the dollar.

Details on increased financial support for grad students are much more sparse, but apparently it will be “flexible” and “enhances the ability of departments to recruit and retain high-caliber graduate students.”

More details on the faculty retention program called “Faculty Fellows” are available, but basically its provides a program for private donors concerned about faculty retention to donate too and has a focus on professors who have received tenure in the last 10 years, a demographic of professors most likely to accept outside offers.

I’m less sold on the “Great place.” part of the initiative, but the limited number of buildings being renovated and the necessary nature of them eases my concerns. The focus is on improving the so called “East Campus Gateway”

Finally, the East Campus Gateway will be another avenue of activity and opportunity. Projects under the East Campus Gateway umbrella include:

• Memorial Union infrastructure upgrades and renovations
• Chazen Museum of Art addition and sculpture garden
• School of Music performance and academic buildings
• Music Hall renovation
• Green and connecting areas of the mall.

New Ogg Hall welcomed its first students last fall, and the removal of the old Ogg Hall residence towers will allow for more green space. Looking ahead, the Mosse Humanities Building will be demolished and replaced with twin academic buildings to house disciplines in the humanities. Further south, a redevelopment of Gordon Commons is planned, along with construction of a hockey facility at the Kohl Center.

Old Ogg needs to go as soon as possible. As a tour guide, I see first-hand that all of that construction in the middle of the Southeast is one of the biggest negatives for prospective students. I don’t use the Humanities building for much, but the occasional visits I make for marching band and looking out the window of my common room in Chadbourne at it for an entire year make me think that if you had to pick a building to replace, it would definitely be towards the top of the list. If you had to pick building upgrades and renovations to make, these seem like some of the most worthwhile, but I would still rather see more of the focus be on the “Great people.” part of the initiative. Rather than spending untold tens of millions making “the university’s front door more accessible and more beautiful.” It would be better see more of that money go towards financial aid and support for students and toward professor retention. The goal is to increase undergraduate financial aid by $40 million, yet I’m sure much more than that will be spent on replacing the Humanities building alone.

There is one thing that all of these new initiatives have in common that isn’t really highlighted in all of the UW sponsored information: all of the money is coming from private sources.

The initiative offers alumni and friends opportunities to direct gifts to areas of personal meaning and special importance in these two campuswide priorities.

That’s right, no taxpayer money. This is yet another example of why state support as a percentage of the entire UW budget is continuing to decline. There are people out there who realize the importance of the UW, even if the state legislature doesn’t, and many of them are willing to show their support with millions of dollars in donations. If this fund raising initiative is successful, it is another step towards increased privatization to do what the state legislature refuses to: adequately fund this university.