Take a close look at the UW System
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, long one of the nation’s most highly regarded research institutions, is a little less well-regarded these days. For the first time in 44 years, UW-Madison fell out of the top five U.S. research universities.
The reason for that has something to do with a university system that during the Walker era has had a tin ear when it came to playing the music of politics. And a lot to do with a hostile state government led by Gov. Scott Walker, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who seem to think the system is merely a large job-training center.
The Madison campus fell to sixth place in the National Science Foundation rankings. It was among only four universities in the top 30 and the only one among the top 10 to report a decline. The 3.6% decline was the biggest among elite universities, according to NSF data. The Madison campus declined in worldwide measures of scientific papers as well.
All of this should be troubling for anyone who cares about the economic wellbeing of the state. Innovation through research, much of it conducted in academic settings, is a path forward as Wisconsin’s manufacturing economy provides fewer good-paying jobs.
But to stay on that path, universities have to hang on to their best faculty, the ones who can do the research that powers innovation, and they have to attract new talent. UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank says the campus has been more vulnerable to the poaching of talent after years of well-publicized state budget cuts. As the university replaced senior researchers with other, younger academics, some measure of clout was lost, she said.
In an article on the UW’s problems last weekend, Journal Sentinel reporters Karen Herzog and Kathleen Gallagher cited as examples the loss of two all-star researchers: Susan Smith, a nutritional scientist investigating alcohol damage to fetuses who moved on to the University of North Carolina, and Jan Edwards, who researches communication sciences and disorders, and moved to the University of Maryland. Their combined research expenditures were more than $1.7 million last year.
Blank argues, as do we, for more state money for top academic talent.
Instead, the UW has faced harsh cuts. Its budget was sliced by $250 million over two years in the last state budget, and when combined with an ongoing tuition freeze, that led to layoffs and other costcutting. Since 2012, state funding to the system has been cut by $362 million.
This is not to argue that the UW cannot make better use of the tax dollars it receives. In fact, we’d favor a top-to-bottom look at how the system operates — a deep dive that hasn’t been done in decades. Walker should appoint a blue-ribbon commission to do just that.
A longer, deeper look at the system and how it fits with the state’s technical school system, works with business and performs in other areas is overdue. The governor’s idea of tying dollars to performance is not a bad one, but a world-class university like the UW is not simply about job training. It’s about educating citizens to reach their full potential in a global market and a global society, a concept that Walker and key legislators haven’t grasped.
For their part, UW officials, including Blank, would do well to figure out how to work more closely with the state’s businesses. This has long been a UW failing.
Wisconsin citizens will benefit from close collaboration between state government, its university system and business. Right now, that’s not happening to the extent that it should.