Unless of course seeing the University of Wisconsin system being gutted because professors are leaving for other institutions for higher pay is a good thing.
In recent remarks by UW System President Kevin Reilly, where he used UW - Stout as an example, he stated,
"Every Chancellor in the System has stories to tell about how challenging this predicament has become, and the very real impact it’s having on how we do what we do. UW-Stout Chancellor Sorensen recently expressed his deep concern about series of faculty departures that occurred at his campus over the summer, leaving the campus to scramble for instructors to cover high-demand classes. On Aug. 3, he sent letters to three members of the School of Art and Design, accepting their resignations from UW-Stout. All had received significantly higher offers from other institutions. In another recent departure, an economics professor at UW-Stout left after receiving a 50% pay raise to go to a private institution in the state. Overall, Chancellor Sorensen reports that UW-Stout has experienced a 43% increase in the number of resignations from the 2010-11 to 2011-12."
A 43 percent increase in the number of resignations from one school in the UW system. While I shouldn't be shocked, I am. UW-Stout is where I have been going for my Masters and it is an excellent institution of higher education. This news makes me worry about the state of the public university system in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Idea, born under Robert M. La Follette, which is the principle that the university should improve people’s lives beyond the classroom, is dying a slow death thanks to Scott Walker. Cutting funding to the UW-System is just a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Republicans.
From Rebecca Kemble at the Progressive:
[Tim] Sullivan [CEO of Bucyrus International Inc. and Walker's education czar] is promoting Performance-Based Funding as a way to “create the right atmosphere for (public education leaders) to make the right decisions.” What Sullivan considers the “right decisions” involve cutting general education classes from technical colleges, tailoring curriculum at all levels to the needs of local manufacturing businesses, and ensuring that no research and development activities are conducted at public institutions unless they have commercial potential.
In other words, there will be no well-rounded students. No chance of a student going to school for welding finding a love of literature, no research done unless it can make money. Higher education should not be just about training someone for a job. It is about creating people who can think critically and who are well rounded. It is my opinion that job training should fall onto the shoulders of the employer. Yes, if you are going to a technical school to learn a trade like welding you should come out with the ability to weld; however, you should also be exposed to the wider world around you. What Mr. Sullivan is calling a "right decision" about cutting general education courses for technical college students would be an injustice to the students and to the State of Wisconsin.