UW alums line up on both sides of Scott Walker's proposed budget cuts
3/16/2015
Capital Times, Madison

By Pat Schneider

University of Wisconsin alumni love their university. But their affection leads them to very different conclusions on Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to slash state funding and award the university greater autonomy to carve out savings in operating costs.

Concern that the cuts could be ruinous to the university runs deep enough to cause hundreds to brave sub-zero wind chills last month for a protest outside the state Capitol. Some of those opposed to the cuts say Walker’s final push in a decades-long trend of state disinvestment from the university will force it to abrogate its fundamental mission as a land grant university.

“Its mission to educate the students of the state is going to go,” said Patricia Hammel, a Madison bankruptcy attorney who got her undergraduate and law degrees at Wisconsin. Walker’s plan to cut funding and extend a freeze on tuition hikes for state residents would leave the university no choice but to recruit more out-of-state and international students who can be charged more, Hammel said. “The state needs to step up and invest in our future.”

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