Chancellor Biddy Martin, former Kimberly-Clark Executive Kathi Seifert and UW Board of Regents President Charles Pruitt held a panel to discuss financing public higher education Wednesday at a Public Representation Organization of Faculty Senate event.
Martin said her Badger Partnership proposal, which attempts to gain more autonomy from the state and increase need-based aid to students through a tuition increase, is a possible way to keep Wisconsin a great place for education, research and development.
The panel discussed how UW-Madison can help the state of Wisconsin from an educational standpoint.
""Arguably, the state needs more graduates. But not just any graduates, but graduates with a kind of education that prepares them for the challenges of the 21st century,"" Martin said. ""The state also needs more jobs, urgently.""
According to Martin, the state of Wisconsin is below average for faculty salaries, while the states' health and other benefits are much ahead of other states.
Martin said UW-Madison needs financial support from the state to help subsidize the growing costs of research and other academic expenses as the university becomes increasingly competitive internationally.
""Even maintaining the quality of research and education that we have now costs more now than it ever has, and the cost of maintaining that quality will continue to grow,"" Martin said. ""That is because of the competitiveness internationally.""
UW-Madison professors are paid based on competitive markets between professor salaries at other higher-education institutions.
According to Pruitt, with the challenges the university faces, it needs to run as a business in order to be more efficient economically.
""If we are to be challenged as a university system to behave more like a business, I would think that we may ought to have more flexibility and behave like a business,"" Pruitt said.
Seifert said education has a direct correlation between higher-paid jobs and job growth within the state of Wisconsin.
""I think that communicating [with the legislature] and helping them appreciate and understand how everything is linked together, they will appreciate the importance of having a high quality of education in the state of Wisconsin,"" Seifert said.
