Students Respond to the UW Taskforce

Today the Wisconsin Legislature's "Special Task Force on UW Restructuring and Operational Flexibilities" meets again in Madison.  In honor of that, I want to bring you some student perspectives on one of the prior task force meetings--the one that took place on February 8, and included presentations from the chancellors of UW-Madison and Milwaukee. I'm doing this because student voices are notably absent from these meetings-- students have not been given a chance to present (they will, for the first time, on May 9) and they do not serve on the task force.  A few have written letters or spoken publicly on the topic, but most have not.

Recently, students in my Introduction to Debates in Higher Education Policy course (EPS 518) were asked to view a legislative or regents hearing or meeting of their choosing and write a response paper.  Below, I provide some representative examples of their responses -- these are deliberately provided without attribution to the student (all are undergraduates) and are posted with their specific permission.  My intention is to simply allow the voices of students to emerge, as I think their comments and questions are critical to the discussion. If other students wish to share their considered opinions of hearings, please do send me your memos, and I'm happy to post thoughtful excerpts.

Student 1: "..The nature of the meeting itself...was self-congratulatory and generally insufficient in data. The meeting focused on individual knowledge and individual power, that is they spoke of their personal bailiwicks, which, while it makes sense for a panel of experts, was insufficient...though the panel brought up several reforms, these reforms were often self-serving, under-supported by data, and/or uncertain in their impact." 


Student 2: [Flexibilities were a primary topic of discussion at the hearing and yet] "there was an utter lack of understanding about what was being discussed...Despite the apparent knowledge gap about what flexibilities were, they were the main focus of discussion and seemed to be the only thing anyone believed could save the UW System money...What is perplexing about the deregulation rhetoric is that, according to Gary Rhoades, this behavior is...a trickle-down model of funding.  In exchange for deregulation and flexibilities, institutions receive less state support. This ends up privileging the elite institutions while creating problems for local institutions. However, it was chancellors of schools like UW-Oshkosh and Platteville who were calling for this deregulation..I cannot help but wonder why the chancellors of these schools would call for deregulation when it would mean less money from the state."

Student 3: "I was surprised at the small number of women on the task force-- just 3. I was disappointed at the lack of minority representation, but not surprised....[many spoke about the word 'product']  and the word 'product' is a difficult one, and its use underscores the different positions and value systems of the task force members. [Most] seemed to think that having a better education and a lower price were mutually exclusive things, and that one must be sacrificed for the other."

Student 4: "As a student, a major concern became evident at this meeting. Members of this task force have been charged with creating innovative solutions to the challenges facing the UW System, challenges that have arisen from a lack of funding. The majority of task force members, however, are not even close to specialists in higher education, let alone public higher education.  In fact these people who are supposed to be coming up with solutions are primarily business people who have spent most of their professional careers in the private sector.  [Thus] it is clear these are powerful voices denouncing the importance of public funding for various reasons."

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Overachievers

You don't get to be a professor at a top university by settling or compromising. You get there by striving, competing, and working against all odds to cram extra hours into already-long days. You expect the best, of everyone.

So it's hard to be a professor at a public university right now. Almost by definition, public universities aren't the top of the heap in spending on the things that professors are trained to care most about-- research, salaries, resources. This leads to frustration, anger, and indignation when our talents go unrecognized, our fields disrespected, and our friends leave for private universities.

It's hard to be a professor at a public university, for sure.

Of course, it's also hard to be a kid whose entire future depends on achieving economic stability and that seems to depend on college-- but college is increasingly out of reach. You're told that the flagship college in your state is really the only one that's worth going to and despite your desire to ignore those elitist comments, they nag at you. You want to go there, but annual costs of attendance are more than your family makes in a year. Your parents didn't go to college, and none of your friends managed to get to that place. So really, why bother? Why work your tail off in high school to get the best grades, work after school jobs to save money, and why knock yourself out to take that ACT? You're never going to be able to get in, and if you do, it's gonna financially cripple your family to afford it. The government has never come through with real financial help before, why expect it to now?

Somehow, my heart tells me it's harder to be that kid than it is to be me.

It's time for UW-Madison to be with the children of Wisconsin's working poor families. Offering financial aid -- accompanied as it is by a byzantine system of paperwork, rules, and caveats-- is clearly insufficient to overcome the fear instilled by widespread talk that tuition is high and getting higher. (I am a researcher of financial aid-- it "works" but it by no means demonstrates sufficiently large effects to hold students harmless from high tuition.) Financial aid won't help combat word on the street that the place is so elite it won't even hang with the other UW universities or colleges anymore. It's out for itself--its alumni, current students, and professors-- not for you.

I am not naive-- we are going to take a bone-crushing hit this year. Our belts are going to tighten so much that we can hardly breathe-- at least we will think that's true. But the fact is, UW-Madison doesn't know poverty. Not even close. It's been blessed to have what it needs to be nearly everything it's wanted to be. That's getting harder to do, and now in these times choices will have to be made. Programs will have to be cut. Faculty will have to teach. Class sizes might have to be a bit larger. The truth is, we will survive this-- and we will be more respectable for it. UW-Madison is nothing without the respect of Wisconsin. Leaving the state behind is not an acceptable approach to accommodating our desires to be the "best."

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Great (Read: Well-Funded) Places to Work

Today the Chronicle of Higher Education released its Great Colleges to Work For report and also the findings from a Michigan survey about family friendly policies in higher education. There is a single clear cross-cutting finding that brings "duh" to mind: The best colleges and universities to work for are those flush institutions which have the funds to do nice things for their professors.

Appearing at the top of nearly every list for the big schools (whether it's best compensation & benefits, best facilities, work-life balance, job satisfaction, or confidence in senior leadership) are wealthy public & privates: Stanford, Emory, U.Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ohio State... Sure, there are several lesser-known schools on the list (among the best small schools for example), and there are plenty of wealthy places not on this list. But on the whole, it's clear that providing faculty with what they need to do their work & enjoy it requires money. Legislature: listen up!!


Now... where are we on this "balance" thing? Ha! Read the report for more....

Here is where we need to go, now:

1. PAID time off for new biological mothers during AND after the pregnancy.
2. PAID time off for new biological fathers.
3. Stop the tenure clock for new mothers and new fathers, and grant ADDITIONAL extensions for the biological mother (who therefore experiences a pregnancy) and the nursing mother (which in itself is a medical event).
4. Grant UNPAID leave to care for children beyond the 12 weeks (!) allowed by FMLA.
5. Allow for negotiated reduced appointments for parents with child care responsibilities (need not be extraordinary!)
6. Provide for a period of modified duties (e.g. reduced teaching), for example for 1 year, for new parents.


Where should the $$ come from? The report has many good ideas, but most importantly moves beyond simply drawing down the professor's sick leave , vacation leave, and disability benefits. There should be special university AND departmental funds for this purpose. It is absolutely appalling that many schools continue to treat pregnancy and childbirth as any other disability AND simultaneously exert special requirements on moms taking time off (e.g. forcing them to "pay back" their time off, making up teaching later for example) but not imposing those requirements on others taking disability leave (e.g. because of a heart attack).

I could go on and on, and perhaps since I am going through this personally on a daily basis, I'm not in the best position to make policy recommendations. Plus, I have this incredibly supportive husband who's decided to prioritize my career and our family... we should all be so lucky!

Have a good day, folks.

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Destruction of the Public University

I write from the front lines. Support for public higher education isn't merely "eroding"-- dare I say it, we are being destroyed. I am employed at one of the longtime leaders of flagship universities, one that really put the public in public, and these days I have no choice but to wonder "Does the state government want me to leave?" Would they rather UW-Madison not exist?

Pardon me for being a bit upset. While my school is by no means the poorest in the state, and I am fully aware as I'm on the tenure-track I occupy a very elite position in the overall structure of faculty jobs, still, the belt tightening is getting to be a little too much. Just a few examples:

1. Our "raises." Since I arrived 4 years ago we've never received more than a 2% annual increase. Today they reneged on our scheduled increase for this July, reducing it from 2% to 1%. One percent!! Thanks very much for the just over $500 bucks-- that's not even enough for a single plane ticket from Madison to Washington, DC these days.

2. Funding our grad students. They are terrific, and boy are they struggling. A very small percentage have any funding--from a teaching or research assistantship-- and it's getting increasingly more difficult to generate external funds to support them. Recently the University was forced to change policy and pass the costs of grad student tuition on to faculty research grants. So now, to hire a student, one has to budget for their stipend, their benefits, and their tuition. That eats up a whole lot of the space in grants. So much so that I have already, on one occasion, been forced to choose between funding a student, or funding myself. I am no saint, but honestly, I funded the student. Why should I have been forced to choose?

3. The lack of benefits. Don't even get me started... 6 weeks unpaid maternity leave (the fed minimum), no domestic partner benefits, no dependent tuition waiver, no childcare assistance...

4. The departures. We're losing great people, wonderful people, right and left. And not just to elite private schools, but to other publics. To places you really think people wouldn't leave us for. But they do, they must, and we wave goodbye and wonder if we're next.

Now maybe I'm taking a huge risk here in being so frank about what it's like here and now, especially without the status of a tenured prof. Oh well. Because here's the other side of the story: This is truly-- despite it all, in spite of their best efforts to squash us-- a WONDERFUL school. The students are genuine and smart, ambitious yet for the most part without egos. The colleagues (who remain) are brilliant, funny, kind people who are truly here for the work. The town is easy-going and somewhat affordable, and a great place to raise a family. The administration ain't perfect, but it's clearly trying. So we stick around. We hope. We survive.

We just do it on a shoestring
("Mom, please send money-- childcare is expensive. Thanks-S.")

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