To Wisconsin:
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents announced their proposed allocation of the proposed $250 million budget cut to the University of Wisconsin System on July 6th. Although everyone is hurting right now, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is among those most affected by the cuts. Interestingly, this didn’t come as a surprise to anyone at our institution. The $250 million cut was allocated just like the cuts were in the past. UW-Milwaukee, as the second largest institution in the system, took 13.6% of the $250 million cut. Let it be noted that $50 million of the originally proposed $300 million was “given back” to the system to those most needing it. We were thankful to receive 18% of that, and we thought the Board of Regents had finally decided to reevaluate the way they allocate cuts. This logic was, unfortunately, not applied to the rest of the $250 million cut.
At first, allocating such a large portion of the cut to the second largest institution may seem to make sense, but when one actually takes the time to seriously evaluate this process, a different picture is painted. UWM is incredibly lean: the recent Goldwater Institute report titled “Administrative Bloat at American Universities” shows quite clearly that UWM operates with more than two and a half times fewer administrative staff, half as many academic staff, and less than a third as much spending per student than the average research university, yet we produce exceptional graduates, and globally impactful research. Just because UWM has many thousands of students doesn’t mean we aren’t already as lean as possible. It is, at least in part, because we have so many students that we are able to be so lean.Our mission is two-fold, and we accomplish it very well: we serve as both a top-tier research university as well as an access institution. As a competitive research university, we produce research every day contributing to the treatment and prevention of cancer, production of cutting-edge, efficient energy-alternatives to fossil fuels, and so much more. As an access institution, we take students from everywhere. We are not a business who only accepts the top-tier applicants; rather, we transform the kid with poor test scores and without any real financial support into tomorrow’s top doctor, educator, artist, and citizen with a desire to have a real impact on the rest of the globe.
At first glance, this seems to be an expensive mission. The state pays approximately $120 million every year for it, but what we as a society need to realize is that UWM is an investment, both economically and socially, with a $1.5 billion impact annually (12.5 times as much as the $120 million investment), and with the production of thousands of graduates every year fundamentally changed by their experience at university: they no longer live for themselves, but rather “to extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of their campus” as well as to “serve and stimulate society,” as the Wisconsin Idea illustrates.
UWM enacts powerful change, but a little more funding would go a long way. We all have a role in this. We can contact the Board of Regents at (608) 262-2324 or board@uwsa.edu before they vote to finalize the allocation of the cut this Thursday, July 9th, and as the state budget is finalized until it’s signed, you can still contact your representatives. You can find their contact info here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/. It’s time UWM was funded appropriately to support its incredibly vital mission.
Mike Sportiello
Student Body President
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee