@bluebayou I’m a current UW parent, so we read Chancellor Blank’s announcements. There was a recent article in the area papers saying that UW is running about 85% retention rate of current faculty who are being recruited away – a percentage which is actually better than in the past. At the same time, there is a higher number of UW faculty coming to their departments/administration with competing offers from outside, so UW is spending more, in the aggregate, to keep them.
So not a net change, but an expensive proposition. $200 million in private donations raised to fund faculty retention and support, so funds from outside State budget are there.
Top researchers are in demand by top colleges. The privates like HYPSM have the financial resources to continue to raise the salary bar, and do. This is no different than it was 10+ years ago.
But lets not buy into the spin that the sky is falling, just bcos the faculty are whining (which is what the do). UW is still a top-ranked research Uni. Remember, it’s all relative, and if UC and UI and the other top publics are struggling UW won’t lose its relative ranking.
One critical difference, however, is that the the top UC campuses…especially UCB have long had top-ranked departments in both STEM and non-STEM fields which rival those of the most elite colleges…including HYPSM.
While UW-Madison has also long been an elite public U, it doesn’t have nearly the wide spectrum of strong departments to the degree UCB has had over many decades.
All true, but what this means is that Berkeley’s faculty are even more tempting targets to be hired away than Wisconsin’s (generally speaking, of course). History bears this out … it’s the reputation of the faculty members that drive the reputation of the school / department; not the reverse.
Keep in mind that the above is a tool to negotiate salaries for faculty. In fact, it’s such a good idea that others are using the same “comparison”. The United Faculty of Florida has done the same thing…
That got me thinking, since UC Berkeley or UCLA are at the top, who do they use for salary comparisons? It’s not very effective if you’re always number 1 or 2 against your “peers”…oh…why limit yourself to public universities?
The UC’s use Harvard, MIT, UIUC, UM-Ann Arbor, UVa, Yale, Stanford and SUNY-Buffalo…
Actually, some years, Cal has more top ranked departments than Harvard.
Of course they do. Besides being fierce sports rivals, Cal and Stanford have been swapping faculty for years.
But that aside, I don’t get your point cobra. UW is a top ~10 public Uni and has been for a long time. It’s direct competition for faculty hasn’t changed, much. (Sure, some publics, such as tOSU and Alabama and Florida are up-and-comers, but they have a ways to go to supplant UW and move into the top 10.)
Keep cost of living in mind when comparing salaries. And, if you aren’t in the SUNY system just count yourself lucky! That means also that you probably work on a campus that does not resemble a 1961 built NY middle school or a cross between a factory and a prison or a greek influenced monstrosity (Albany; As in…“d, brought in a model of Stone’s proposed design one day. Marshall thought it looked like an ancient Greek university. “I said: ‘Get that thing out of here, Tony. That’s terrible.’” Adinolfi left the model with Marshall, saying it wasn’t so bad” It is that bad!).
As a rule I’ll keep my distance from Badgers, they be tough, sinewy little creatures. But I have to ask, what’s up with the Bucky mascot? Bucky should have a perpetually sneer, not look like one of those Japanese monsters from a 1970’s Ultraman movie. (hmmm…thinking about that, the “old” Alberta could also pass as a kaiju)
UF’s recently recruited a few folks from UW-Madison, like Prof. Gordon Mitchell, but overall, being heavily recruited is a good thing for UW faculty, as it allows them to renegotiate higher salaries (or jump to better jobs). As an university, having top flight faculty and dealing with other institutions recruiting go hand in hand.
Especially with the current craze to increase research $$$.
Wow, lostaccount. What purpose did your little (and constant) SUNY rant serve in this thread discussing UW-Madison and universities of similar caliber?
My point in that post is that despite the severe budget cuts to UCs including UCB, the level of cuts and/or length of time those cuts are applied would need to be at a catastrophically severe level for it to decline to the point it affects UW-Madison’s overall reputation…especially in its favor because of UCB’s wider spectrum of exceedingly strong departments which could give private elites at the HYPSMC level a great run for their money.
Not saying UW-Madison isn’t a top public or excellent comprehensive university…just a reflection of the great difficulty UW would have in going from where it’s at now among top public colleges to the level UCB maintained the strengths of its academic departments across a wide spectrum of fields over the last several decades unless UCB decline is dramatic due to some catastrophically severe factors such as a budget cuts and faculty salary freezes/cutbacks ginormous/severe enough to the point their topflight Profs leave in droves for universities which poached them by making better salary/research grant offers.
And I agree The level and length of budget cuts in Madison would have to be extreme and over time to affect its ranking. All else is just whining by faculty and their union reps.
Dr Mitchell is near retirement age and probably wanted a warm place to retire. They used to take jobs at UCs in their early 60s but Cal getting too expensive for retirement unless you already own home there.
BTW UW has had top ranked depts in many non STEM fields too. Soc, psychology, languages, poli sci, history, education, etc. Maybe not quite to UCB level but very very good to Top 10.
UW parent – can’t help myself, yes, UW History and Poli Sci are top 15 departments. Amazing faculty, plus gobs of opportunities for student research funding etc.
In short, it seems like he was a college dropout…and one with a cumulative which would make most CC parents…and yours truly cringe if that were my undergrad cumulative GPA…
