Sunday, July 17, 2011

Biddy Martin

The have been a lot of negative things written about Chancellor Martin since she left. A lot of writers have focused on the ill fated Badger partnership. Many of these same writers have complained about how UW-Madison is not affordable and accepts too many out of state students. Keep in mind that this was a chancellor has been all about trying to make the university affordable. What they wanted her to do the traditional thing and lobby a legislature that is generally hostile to anything Madison and has been cutting the State contribution to higher education over the last 20 years? instead she has looked outside the box (many alumni have debated for years taking the campus private) and proposed a public authority. She as recently as last week proposed eliminating the tuition increases for those students whose family earns <$80,000 per year. That is a sizable number of students. Making college affordable! She also gets high marks from me in terms of communication. Whenever the any breaking news that may make the UW look bad she was always out front of the story explaining the campus position and what was being done.

She may have only been here three years but we lose one of the best chancellors of the last 30 years.

No comments:

Post a Comment