<p>Went to a meeting with a small group of alumni from the area and the Dean K of the School of Business. Purpose of the meeting was to kick around ideas about the UW's funding model going forward, improving alumni relations, and specific improvements needed in the B School.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The current funding model was fine though the early 80's but is now not sufficient to meet UW's goals.</p></li>
<li><p>UW's goal is to be among the top few state U's in the country.</p></li>
<li><p>The new admin at UW is far more proactive and politically atuned than the past ones. The focus is and will be on quality. Top programs will get more $$$ and the poor ones will be pruned. Student interest and private fundraising are key indicators of success as well as research funding in some areas as appropriate</p></li>
<li><p>The current tuition model is nearly criminal. There is no direct relationship between tuition charged in a school or program and the tuition dollars that get allocated back. Some of it can and does end up in Oshkosh and Stout. Only the tuition surcharges as now done in SOB, Engineering and the new Madison Initiative come back 100%. You will see more of these.</p></li>
<li><p>The SOB will start direct freshman admits but the methods are still being determined and the number will be under 100. There are positives and some negatives for any approach. The Dean was very open to ideas.</p></li>
<li><p>The UW overall is very focused now on building its national brand and getting out the UW message. They admit in the past this was not really done.</p></li>
<li><p>They are very focused on building alumni support and donation from the narrow model they now use--go after the top 10% of large donations--and will be doing more to get as many $100 donations and raise the alumni interest and support. They feel the new forms of communications make this possible today. It was just too expensive to have armies of people contacting all alumni. Now they can send targeted emails, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>They are overall VERY happy with Biddy and her success in the budget cycle and state relations. The biggest hurdle (unsaid) seems to be UW System which as a much more leveling and pro-rata approach to everything. Having one outstanding national campus is not a big priority for them and it shows in allocations of tuition and other funding. I got the idea that it's a bigger problem now than dealing with the state. Something to work on changing. </p></li>
<li><p>We only had an hour and needed two to get into many other issues from student aid to out of state versus instate student balance, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I am VERY happy with the leadership we have at the SOB and the UW overall. To have a Dean who was friendly and interested in hearing from the alums is a big positive. I hope he stays another decade. I think he has become one of Biddy's top go to guys for advice which is good for the SOB. And the uW as I think he really gets it both for the SOB and the UW overall.He has had lots of interest from other SOBs but loves being at UW and public education as he thinks it adds more value for more people. That's what he's about as an economist by training.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thanks for the info barrons, was curious, what do these 2 points mean?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The current tuition model is nearly criminal. There is no direct relationship between tuition charged in a school or program and the tuition dollars that get allocated back. Some of it can and does end up in Oshkosh and Stout. Only the tuition surcharges as now done in SOB, Engineering and the new Madison Initiative come back 100%. You will see more of these.</p></li>
<li><p>The SOB will start direct freshman admits but the methods are still being determined and the number will be under 100. There are positives and some negatives for any approach. The Dean was very open to ideas.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When you write your check to UW Madison it would be my expectation that those funds go into the overall UW Madison budget to pay for the education. Well, that it not so at all. All the tuition goes to the state treasury and then is reallocated back to the UW System (all campuses) where it is allocated to the various campuses according to a process nobody seems to fully understand. Thus it is highly likely that the rich school (Madison) loses some of that money in the process. It could also be a net winner but the SOB Dean does not think so. It’s very hard to calculate how mcuh was collected vs how much was allocated back due to tuition waivers for some and all sorts of other exceptions to paying full tuition (part-time students etc.) Anyway just the fact that there is no direct $ for $ pass thru of tuition is troubling to me. The exception is the tuition add-ons for business, engineering and now the Madison Initiative. All those $$$s flow back directly. </p>
<ol>
<li>The Biz School now admits students after freshman or soph year --soon to be all after freshman year. But they plan to have a direct admit for kids applying to the UW for the frist time. The number in this program will be kept low–under 100 high ability students. They have not decided on the exact process for selecting the high ability kids. Could be an extra essay or leadership skills, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for sharing. It means a lot when you have the opportunity to meet decision makers at the University and choose to share.</p>
<p>I too met the Dean last week and was struck with his humility and candor. I’m an L&S Grad, but he was as interested in my business experiences as others. Biddy does seem like a big improvement, though the political change in the State house probably helped. She appears to be tough, but more politically adept no? It does seem the UW is hamstrung compared for example to its Ann Arbor neighbor in terms of funding. AA’s professional schools in particular are nearly private institutions. </p>
<p>As long as the Wisconsin Idea is respected I’m excited about tackling these issues and the UW’s future. </p>
<p>Oh, I thought UW Madison was already one of the top few state U’s in the country :)!</p>
<p>I remain somewhat unsure of this entire Wisconsin Idea thing. Does that mean you only share research and ideas within the state? Does it mean you work on state problems only? In this day of easy communications virtually any idea that is any good will be shared well beyond the state. I just never got that little distinction. Yes the give priority to Wisconsin kids in admissions-fine with that. If I want to use the UW hospital from OOS and have insurance will I be put out? </p>
<p>Where did you attend the meeting? </p>
<p>Yes having a more friendly admin at the Capitol makes life much easier. Things that prior admins fought tooth and nail sailed right through–equal treatment for gay partners, new dorms and probably some other arcane stuff we don’t even realize. </p>
<p>UW’s tuition model is certainly strange and does not help with any clarity of income and expenses. I like some transperancy in such things and if I were paying tuition and did not know where it ended up I’d think about legal action if I had the time and money. The only blessing is that we are well below places like UM and have some room to use increases such as the new Biddy Plan to raise more money with minimal fuss. Did the Deam relate the story about when she announced the plan to selected students and the kid from Business asked her, Is that really enough to do what you want?? Business kids understand price/quality and no free lunch.</p>
<p>If we had a more direct tuition model it also would be more possible to do direct tuition discounting to improve fin aid and maybe add some needed merit aid. Those were issues I wanted to discuss but we did not have time.</p>
<p>I went to the cocktail hour at the W. Got there early and accidentally got primo time with the Dean!</p>
<p>I’m sure as the UW moves towards restructuring its financing (more private, targeted funding) a debate concerning the WI Idea will ensue. </p>
<p>The University touts the WI idea as the University is a resource for the State and beyond. So, no I wouldn’t expect out of state folks to be put out of the hospital. In fact I figure the University’s tradition of tolerance is part of that idea. </p>
<p>But it’s a great question: what does it mean to be a public university? I would argue that many of the great campus events are due to such a commitment: the single grain experiment, New Deal social programs, creation of the arboretum etc…</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for all the great info you have given me and others on this forum about Madison. I am a junior in HS and have been looking at colleges since earlier this year, and UW is one of my top two choices, and probably the most likely place I will end up at. Anyways, you state that UW is going to start directly admitting students to the biz school; is this going to start during admissions this fall. I really hope so, as I am planning on going into the business school at whatever university I end up at. One of the things I didn’t like about Madison was that I wouldn’t know for sure if I was going to be in the school of business unlike other schools (UMinn, BC) I am planning on applying to. Also, what do you think the typical stats would be of students who are directly admitted to the school.</p>
<p>Not this year. Still in planning stages. The criteria are not yet set nor is the system to be used. It WILL be very selective. Basically the Dean feels that if you don’t have the confidence to compete as a Soph with the others you may not be very good business material. Frosh admits will be the small exception.</p>