Approximately 70 students gathered at a forum Monday as administrators explained the general goals of the New Badger Partnership and addressed students' concerns with the proposed state relationship model.
At the forum, which was hosted by the Associated Students of Madison, Chancellor Biddy Martin, Dean Lori Berquam and Director of State Relations and Assistant to the Chancellor Don Nelson outlined how the proposed model would change the university's relations with state government.
""The New Badger Partnership essentially argues that the University of Wisconsin-Madison needs more flexibility in order to operate more effectively and more efficiently and that with that flexibility, we can do more to help ourselves so that we can help the state of Wisconsin,"" Martin said.
Martin said both support and independence from the state in university decisions are crucial when dealing with the success of a large university such as UW-Madison.
""If we're going to have to deal with declining state support, which we have been dealing with and will continue to deal with, help us help ourselves by giving us more management flexibility and more autonomy to manage our own affairs,"" Martin said.
Berquam said more autonomy from the state could take the power to set tuition from the state Legislature and give it to the university, which would increase the consideration of student input in tuition decisions.
""I don't think students are consulted when it comes to tuition. One of the things our chancellor, [Nelson] and others are committed to is the value of shared governance on our campus,"" Berquam said. ""It is what has built our campus to be the strong place that it is and I believe it is what will continue to see us through troubled time in the future.""
In response to students' concerns that the new model will lead to privatizing the university, Martin said UW-Madison would never become a private institution because of the ideals upon which the school was founded.
""We haven't asked, nor do we support, making UW-Madison a private university,"" Martin said. ""Financially, it would be unaffordable. Second, it would cut against the grain of what's great about this particular university.""
State funding directly affects tuition increases and the diversity of students on campus, Martin said.
""By 2015, we need to have the campus be more diverse,"" Martin said. ""But the process of growing the enrollment so that we can accommodate more students from outside the country or state would have to be a slow one,"" said Martin. ""We're working on increasing all of our revenue sources, so we will be working on this as an ongoing question on what we can afford.""
