While it hurts a little, this is a positive omen.
Superior, WI (NNCNOW.com) — More programs at the University of Wisconsin-Superior are on the chopping block.
Officials say it’s all in an effort to shave $2 million out of the budget 2016
New students at the University won’t be able to enroll in a number of programs after December 22, 2014.
“One specialist program in our graduate program and several concentrations that fall under there; as well as a concentration under our math program,” said Lynne Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications. “We still have a math major, but one of the concentrations is being cut and then three additional minors French minor, German education minor, and French education minor.”
I’m sure some kids wanted a minor in French or German, but in the grand scheme of things, is this that big a deal? It is almost the definition og “nice to have.” The good news is that it seems to be a direction coming from the top:
System President Ray Cross has outlined new standards for the 13 UW campuses, which he shared during an October address to the Superior-Douglas County Area Chamber of Commerce.
“He said ‘From this day forward, our priority will be to develop the talent and ideas that bring prosperity to Wisconsin,’ ” Wachter said. As part of his plan, “UW Superior won’t be able to automatically receive funding from the system,” she explained. “We’ll have to compete against everyone else, and the basis for how we compete is by tying what we do to economic development and talent development in the region. It’s a very explicit part of this budget plan and a very explicit part of what we do on campus in terms of how we talk about program development, how we talk about student outcomes.”
Providing students the skills that regional employers need is among the points addressed in the Superior Visions 2020 Strategic Plan, which cites the need to provide a quality student experience, develop partnerships, achieve excellence and manage resources. That means the establishment of more internships and boards to provide advice about academic programs.
“We believe that when we partner with our communities, it’s a win-win situation for both,” Wachter said. “The university’s assets can help make the community a better place. It can make it more vibrant – make it thrive.”
I did a lot of internet background on the Marquette TA who got in the kerfluffle with Professor McAdams over gay rights. Looking at her academic background just got me to thinking about how many taxpayer resources are wasted on classes that are completely worthless to large swaths of the student base and society itself.
The TA, Cheryl Abbate is now transferring to the University of Colorado. Her resume is here:
https://ceabbate.wordpress.com
From what I could gather, she studies Vegan and feminist issues. One of her papers dealt with the fact that society should reconsider whether it is justified for a human to kill an animal in self defense (ie. a Bear attacks a hiker). Her position is that the human inserted himself into the Bear’s environment and this provoked the attack, thus it even self defense it is man’s fault the bear is dead and this is a travesty against nature.
The bottom line is that I’m fine if people want to philosophize about all sorts of things in private universities, blogs, etc but the taxpayers need more value for the billions we pour in colleges and universities. We’ve let the liberals use our taxpayers checkbook for so much of this crap for too long.