Athenae, On Wisconsin

Autonomy’s Just Another Word for “Fuck You Wisconsin.” Love, Scott Walker

I would ask if he hasn’t done enough damage but obviously not: 

The University of Wisconsin System will be given more autonomy, while having its state funding slashed by 13 percent over the next two years, under the budget Gov. Scott Walker will submit to the Legislature next week.

Walker released details of his budget plan as it affects the UW System to The Associated Press on Monday ahead of a public announcement on Tuesday.

“It will make the University of Wisconsin more efficient, more effective and ultimately more accountable,” Walker said.

The State Journal first reported this month that Walker was considering giving the System more autonomy, possibly accompanied by budget cuts. Walker and System president Ray Cross confirmed the discussions last week.

The state is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall for the two-year budget that begins July 1.

WELL WHOSE FUCKING FAULT IS THAT? He created a crisis and is using that crisis to justify the cuts.

They no longer want to drown government in the bathtub. Now they want to draw and quarter it and spread its entrails to the four corners of the earth while its parents watch.

A.

8 thoughts on “Autonomy’s Just Another Word for “Fuck You Wisconsin.” Love, Scott Walker”

  1. Gov. Walker is perfectly happy not to have a college degree, so now he wants to spread that happiness to others.

  3. Yep. Nailed it, A. I predict a 16%+ Tuition increase over the next few years.

    I see a similarly trend in the BigEnergy/TeaGOPer world.

    They can’t get, say, the Cutthroat Trout off the Endangered Species list no matter how much money they throw at their Congresscritters. But, they are bound and determined to get to those resources.

    So, if you can’t buy the Trout off the list, remove it from the List by driving it into extinction by befouling their habitat.

    With nothing to protect anymore, they can get their landrape on in earnest.

  4. I suspect “autonomy” will mean more public-private “partnerships,” opening the way for the Koch brothers to buy themselves a university on the cheap. It’s simple, really. Starve the school and then pave the way for billionaires to buy it up, department by department, setting curricula, making decisions on professorial hires and fires, and deciding what books can be taught.

    And some further tuition increases, to help keep the riff-raff proletariat out. So, the taxpayers get to pay the bulk of the freight, while the benefits accrue to the wealthy. That’s always been the plan.

  6. I got an email from the chancellor of UW-Madison yesterday, as I’m an employee of the university. You may remember that former chancellor Biddy Martin was the one advocating for all of this in the first place, and she actually left in no small part because it hadn’t gone through fast enough for her. Rebecca Blank, however, is less excited about all of this:

    The $300 million cut is believed to be the largest in the history of the university. In the past, large cuts have always been mitigated by additional tuition revenue from both resident and nonresident students.

    This proposed cut, on top of the reduction in the last state budget, would result in a more than 15 percent decrease in state funds to the university over a four-year period. Fully absorbing these cuts would harm our students and their educational experience.

    I appreciate the opportunity for additional flexibility and management efficiencies that a public authority might bring, and would work hard to implement these effectively on our campus. It would be challenging, however, to engage in a major reorganization while also coping with a large budget cut.

    And Scotty just imposed a two-year tuition freeze, too, because apparently we have a “sizeable surplus”.

  7. At some point, fairly soon, the state support is negligible, and UW should just go private: kick Scotty’s asshole friends off their board, set tuition to whatever they want, and rename UW to the “University of FUCK YOU WITH A HOCKEY STICK SCOTT WALKER”

    I, for one, look forward to the “interesting” football halftime entertainment provided by the newly renamed (and proud) UFYWAHSSW.

Comments are closed.