\There's a lot to be proud of; there's a lot to worry about,"" UW System President Katharine Lyall said of the university's future.
""But I don't have to do it.""
Lyall, who announced in February she would retire from her 12-year post, gave her swan song Wednesday afternoon as part of the Wisconsin Union's Roundtable Luncheon series.
The out-going president was effusive in her praise for what she termed the system's flagship campus, UW-Madison, and called the system she fostered ""remarkable.""
However, she suggested the system should consider implementing a students' bill of rights, including the right to affordable higher education and the right to have tuition money spent on education, not other state programs. Lyall said recent state cuts in the system budget were detrimental to achieving these goals.
""Across the system, we are seeing [an] erosion of quality,"" Lyall said. ""Inadequate library resources, cutbacks in supplies for classes, less funding for academic counseling, poorly maintained classrooms and facilities ...""
Calling the economic trends of this state ""worrisome,"" Lyall said the economic relationship of the UW System with Wisconsin remained crucial.
""Creating 100 high-end brain-gain jobs has the same direct economic impact as creating 250 new manufacturing jobs,"" Lyall said. ""That is why ... it made little sense to cut more than 600 UW faculty and staff positions in this current state budget.""
Lyall remained cautiously optimistic, saying solving budget crises in the past had made the system stronger in the process.
""As many of us look at the budget challenges facing the state of Wisconsin and particularly our university campuses, it is like d??j?? vu all over again,"" she said.
Lyall was received with an extended standing ovation from the crowd, congratulating her tenure as UW System president.
Mara McDonald, assistant administrator in the genetics department, agreed Lyall had succeeded in making the system ""the best it could be,"" despite what she called an unwilling state Legislature.
But McDonald said there was still much work to be done with the system, especially in the area of diversity.
""I'd like to see the Board of Regents make diversity a priority,"" she said. ""What we need to do is to go out and reach the rest of Wisconsin to bring them up to a perspective that diversity is important.""
Jeff Hamm, co-coordinator of Roundtable Luncheons, praised Lyall as someone who unified the system.
""Throughout the years ... she has worked to make the system more streamlined and more efficient,"" Hamm said. ""Many folks that hold a post like hers last an average of five years.\
