Taxpayer-Funded U. Wisconsin Chancellor Spends Her Days Lobbying Alumni Against Scott Walker

DC - The Daily Caller ^ | February 22, 2015 | Eric Owens

[Cincinatus' Wife]

".......A Feb. 18 email from [Rebecca] Blank blatantly implores alumni to call state legislators to complain about the proposed education cuts.

“If you choose to contact your legislator on behalf of the university, I encourage you to thank them for engaging in an active discussion about the university budget, tell them you recognize that the state is facing a difficult budget situation and that the university must do its share along with other state agencies, but that a budget cut of the magnitude called for in the proposed budget is just too big and will have a significant negative impact on UW-Madison and its students,” Blank propagandizes in the email obtained by The Daily Caller.

“I encourage you to stay informed about the UW budget by visiting uwalumni.com/advocacy,” the chancellor’s email, entitled “This week’s conversation with alumni,” further urges.

Blank, who was hired in 2013, collects a base salary of $495,000, plus various perks and benefits."

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Whine, Wisconsin

Whine, Wisconsin

Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine ...

[wiggen]

I see the authors point but i have to assume funding is part of the chancellors job so maybe she sounds whiney but she’s supposed to fight for funding.

[spokeshave]

Here's a place for some cuts to budget:

Blank, who was hired in 2013, collects a base salary of $495,000, plus various perks and benefits."

[4rcane]

cut her salary and divert the money saved to other part of education. Problem solved

[pepsionice]

It would be curious to have analysis to show without state funding...a student’s four-year period of cost for tuition might be $150,000 (rather than the $80k that people generally pay today).

Personally, I think we have a responsibility to produce engineers and scientists....but the rest of these degrees of marginal value (French literature, sadly to suggest)....is not the job of some state university. Those folks ought to pay 150-percent of the cost of a degree.

[cripplecreek]

All funding to colleges should be severely cut if not eliminated altogether.

College should be for the best and brightest and it should be hard to get into.

[boycott]

She’s in the 1% that liberals need to protest. Are liberal students okay with the 1%ers when it’s one of them?

[DoodleDawg]

If the Chancellor wants to restore the cuts to the university budget then all she has to do is announce that the first programs to feel the cuts will be the football and basketball programs.

[drpix]

"{Chancellor} Blank, who was hired in 2013, collects a base salary of $495,000, plus various perks and benefits."

The UW system has been corrupted by self-enriching elitist hypocrites - enabled by a soviet style propaganda media. From "Wait, HOW Many UW System Employees Make More than Wisconsin's Governor?" - 1130-WISN :

"Governor Walker earned $143,871.52 last year. That would make him the 408th highest paid employee in the University of Wisconsin System. That’s right, there are 407 people in Wisconsin’s universities that made more money last year than Wisconsin’s Governor."

"UW System President Ray Cross... earned $525,000 - more than three times the Governor’s salary."

"The highest-paid professor earned $306,030... {and} didn’t teach a single course during the fall semester, and is not teaching any courses this semester."

[Graybeard58]

Many of Wisconsin’s teachers have to be liking Walker by now, he’s saved them a pile of money, since he made union dues voluntary. Many of them have stopped paying dues.

I suspect that a large number of those former dues payers were once gung ho unionists.

[From The Deer Stand]

Gov. Walker’s proposed $300 million cut to the UW System represents 2.5% of its overall budget. Liberals call this an “attack on education,” forgetting the $250 million cut to the U of W by Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle when he was in office. Doyle’s cut, at that time, represented a higher percentage of the overall UW System budget.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

From what I understand, Gov. Walker’s proposal allows the UW System more leeway in controlling where the money goes — so in the end, this gives them the flexibility that they need to draw up a good budget, and in time (I believe) tuition will come down - that it’s a win-win for everyone (but the academics/administrators are fighting this).

[light-bulb]

I think it would be even more valuable to show the direct link between effectively free money and the rise of university tuition. The student loan system is so broken.
If regulations and free money were not there I’d say the cost would be half of what it is today.
Education has been on a run-away inflation mechanism for 30 years.

We absolutely do not in my opinion have a responsibility to “produce engineers and scientists” we have a free country and should the individual want and dedicate themselves to achieving they have the opportunity.

We need to break the love affair with college. It’s not the de facto answer for every child and guarantees nothing today, except in many cases massive debt with no realistic method to pay it back.

Look at the narrator ve with Scott Walker, and the mentality people have towards a person who went to school but never got a piece of paper... Think of that lunacy, basically the only thing he lacks is a piece of paper! What does that even prove?

Anyway, I agree the cost of the loan should be very very high for degrees with only marginal rates of return. That should be a list based on market demand that can ebb and flow.

[Sooth2222]

The problem isn't non-engineering and science majors. Unemployment among college graduates -- including all silly and useless majors -- is much lower than that of high school graduates. The problem (and this is what Rebecca Blank should be spending her energy attempting to improve) is that the product that colleges and universities produce is grossly overpriced.

[Liz]

U. of Wisconsin Chancellor is engaged in political activities (bashing Walker) on taxpayers' dime...she was hired in 2013 w/ a base salary of $495,000, plus various perks and benefits.

NOTE Some (or all of her salary and perks) is funded by education bond issues...the bond issues were either legislated or secured through referendum in the voting booth.

REALITY CHECKS

<><> State-issued bonds mean taxpayers burdened w/ eternal debt---paid off w/ endless taxation.

<><> Bonding agents make tons of money off the backs of taxpayers.

<><> Who is getting a cut of the bonding action?

<><> Are sub rosa deals being made w/ bonding agents?

<><> Did bonding agents contribute to anti-Walker campaigns?

===============================================

Investors in education bond issues have standing to sue---since the Chancellor's publicly-funded activities were not disclosed to them. The SEC would be interested in public monies being raised and dispensed w/out proper disclosure.

CONTACT: enforcement @sec.gov.

[cripplecreek]

We absolutely do not in my opinion have a responsibility to “produce engineers and scientists” we have a free country and should the individual want and dedicate themselves to achieving they have the opportunity.

ITT paid for my uncle's doctorate because they recognized what they needed in coming years and gave him a full scholarship. They also dumped a bunch of money into UofM electronic engineering programs in those days. As part of the agreement he ended up working for ITT for a few years and stayed on well beyond the required time.

Look at Hillsdale college. They're a completely private liberal arts school and they're thriving on people paying their own big bucks.

As far as I'm concerned, we have too many students in college who would be better served by trade schools and apprenticeship programs. America would be much better served if we were producing makers and builders too.

For that matter a lot of revolutionary inventions come from people without degrees. The guy who invented a new flash steel hardening process that makes stronger steel quicker (Flash Bainite) didn't have a college degree. He has an informal metallurgy background. He did take it to the University of Ohio to find out what was happening in the process and to tweak it for better more consistent results. The net result is stronger steel and students on the cutting edge of the technology.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Walker’s plan cuts the budget slighlty, but gives UW-Madison autonomy from the rest of the UW System. The last time this was proposed by Walker (around the time of SB-10 and all the brouhaha that engendered), Biddy Martin was the Chancellor and when she supported Walker on that single issue, the faculty and state employees unions strenuously objected, and Biddy was abruptly sent packing to Amherst. For her it was a good idea to separate the flagship campus, but politically speaking, particularly in the People’s Republic of Madison where anti Walker sentiment was extremely rabid, it was a bridge too far and poof! she was gone.

I like the autonomy idea. I have three degrees from UW-Madison, and it is a different animal altogether than the other UW campuses, and deserves to be separate. The decision to merge the campuses into the statewide system in 1970 was a mistake.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit that I benefited from the regular meddling in the University by the legislature. Each budget the legislature wrote into the UW Law School budget provisions that a certain number of seats (approx. 15 of 300 in each entering class) would be made available to part-time students. That was generally understood to open the door for legislators who wanted to complete their law degrees on a part-time basis, but since it wasn’t precisely restricted to legislators, others could take a part time slot, as I did. That allowed me to work my way through school, taking 5 years instead of 3, while paying a mortgage and avoiding student loans. So, that kind of meddling was personally beneficial.

I hope it flies. It was a very good school when I was there, and it is gaining stature all the time. The Athletics Department success in football and basketball is drawing a lot of attention to the school, and the long awaited bio- and other tech spinoffs from the UW’s research are now bringing significant new employment to the Madison area. I think autonomy from the UW System will be the next step to UW Madison becoming an indisputably great school.

[Stosh]

The University of Wisconsin’s endowment, as of 2013: $2.2 billion. (And if it’s not significantly higher today, they ought to be looking for a new director of development).

[AppyPappy]

“The highest-paid professor earned $306,030... {and} didn’t teach a single course during the fall semester, and is not teaching any courses this semester.”

That’s because he is probably raking in Millions of $$ in grant money.