To the Editor:
Early this year, you published an analysis of public higher education in Wisconsin with this ominous headline: “Wisconsin’s Warning for Higher Ed: Leaders have put off making tough decisions about their public colleges for decades. The options have only grown more difficult” (The Chronicle, January 8).
Today, the Universities of Wisconsin are not sidestepping hard decisions. In fact, we are confronting them head-on — even when difficult, painful, and disruptive — to position Wisconsin’s 13 public universities to thrive in a competitive higher-education marketplace and to provide opportunities to our students for decades to come.
Our decision to undertake the unprecedented financial analysis of our comprehensive universities and our central administration is critical. When we began, 10 of our 13 universities were facing structural deficits. We have been successfully bridging that gap and making our expenditures match our revenues, but this is not easy. These decisions have led to layoffs, academic and organizational restructuring, and service changes.
We are also consolidating some administrative functions, including such shared services as human resources, technology and cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance, to provide opportunities for expense reductions.
Equally difficult have been the decisions to close some of our two-year campuses or to suspend in-person instruction there. We simply don’t see a viable path to maintaining these facilities in the long run amid dramatically dwindling enrollments.
Like universities nationwide, we are confronting challenging demographics. That’s why we’ve launched Direct Admit Wisconsin, which admits students capable of succeeding at our universities — before they even apply. We hope to encourage some students to think about obtaining a four-year degree who might otherwise have passed on the opportunity. Meantime, we’re also seeing promise in dual-enrollment programs, so students can earn college credit while in high school. We are also reviving the Wisconsin Tuition Promise to help more low-income students attend our universities and revamping the Wisconsin Online Collaborative, our exclusively online delivery portal, and increasing our industry-focused credentialing offerings.
We know that we need to couple hard choices and enrollment strategies with more investment. The latest State Higher Education Executive Officers Association study of financing for public higher education shows that Wisconsin ranks 43rd of 50 states for four-year universities. We will soon ask the state to help us get up to the middle of those rankings after years of neglect.
Among other things, we have ambitious plans to create an AI hub focused on education, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. With additional funding we can expand the number of students we serve in AI and other high-demand fields, including engineering, computer science, nursing, life sciences, agriculture, teaching, and business and finance.
Our embrace of change extends to our very identity. Last fall we announced a new identity for our 13 public universities — the Universities of Wisconsin. The goal was to shift the emphasis from our administrative system to our universities, which create opportunities for students and improve communities all across our state. It’s been an exciting change that will take time to fully take effect but that our state is embracing.
Jay Rothman
President
Universities of Wisconsin
Madison
