On Bascom Tuesday, students, staff and members of the community sat down with Chancellor Biddy Martin for over an hour to express their concerns with the New Badger Partnership, while other students met with state lawmakers and staff at the Capitol to show their support for it.
The conversation with Martin was an unpredicted conclusion to an approximately 100-person protest organized by the Student Labor Action Coalition, in which they satirically auctioned off the university to demonstrate their concern that big companies will dominate the university if the NBP passes.
SLAC member Beth Huang said in most public forums she feels the chancellor listens, but does not take much feedback. However, she said she thought the dynamics of the conversation Tuesday were different than that of Martin's public forums.
""It was clear that she did not completely dominate the discussion,"" Huang said. ""It was really nice today that we're able to take more control over the discussion, which allowed us to ask follow-up questions.""
The discussion focused on splitting UW-Madison from the UW System and the protestors' concerns about a decrease in accessibility and affordability. Those present demanded Martin to publicly declare opposition against the budget cuts to higher education in the state of Wisconsin, and to guarantee a tuition decrease.
Martin said that cuts to the budget and higher education are a ""reality we face"" and tuition will be higher if the university remains in the System than if it separates.
The group Students for the NBP also focused on the themes of college accessibility and affordability while lobbying in support of the NBP at the State Capitol Tuesday.
The group delivered information to all 132 legislative offices and spent time answering questions concerning topics such as tuition increases and transfer students.
""Our goal today was to reach out to as many legislators as we could and get them the facts about the NBP and also put a students' face on support of the NBP, and I think we accomplished both of those,"" said Jon Alfuth, a member of Students for the New Badger Partnership.
Alfuth said he believes students should support the partnership because fundamentally, it will allow the university to be more flexible and increase quality.
Both groups will be very active in the upcoming weeks.
Alfuth said it is important to make the voice of students who support the bill heard, and they will continue speaking to spread awareness about the facts behind the proposal.
Huang said that some SLAC members will meet with Martin for a follow-up discussion Friday.
