Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[secundem_artem]

. That said, however, Madison brings a lot to the state too, probably, taken as a whole, at least as much as those small regional state colleges that train the local ps teachers and lawyers-- do people not realize this, or is there hatred for the cultural stuff associated with Madison (and places like this in other states) so strong that they would ignore it?   

Name five things that Madison  pretty much any uni you can name brings to the state that are valued by the small farm communities.

I'll wait. 

I don't disagree that the identity politics so common on some campuses are enough to drive most sane people to drink.  But.......

Part of the value any university brings to a rural community is the concept that there is something else out there besides an overly developed interest in the price of soybeans.  If nothing else, they provide a way OUT.  Which, of course, is why so many small towners loathe such institutions - they provide a means for the local youth to "git beyond yer raisin' "

I have 2 colleagues who grew up in those kinds of settings.  When the first was preparing to depart for the SLAC he attended as an undergrad, his pastor told him, "Now, they're gonna tell you to keep an open mind.  Don't you do it son.  Your brain may fall out."  The second told her high school friends what she was planning (not just college, but out of state) and was told, "You must really hate your family if you want to do that."

The thing some parents hate more than anything else is the thought that their kids want a world bigger than the small town they were born in.

God bless my parents - I grew up in a cow town, but they never resented the fact that I was going to leave home and see what was out there.  I ended up back in another cow town, but the journey in between was wonderful.

[Hibush]

. That said, however, Madison brings a lot to the state too, probably, taken as a whole, at least as much as those small regional state colleges that train the local ps teachers and lawyers-- do people not realize this, or is there hatred for the cultural stuff associated with Madison (and places like this in other states) so strong that they would ignore it?   

Name five things that Madison brings to the state that are valued by the small farm communities.

The "Wisconsin Idea", that the university serve the larger society has been a great example to other states. Research and extension at Wisconsin means that Wisconsin still has dairies. There is a certain amount of rural identity tied to those in Wisconsin. A lot of the dairy folks are aware of that and depend on that resource regularly. Ditto for the rest of agriculture, which will be a lot more than five things valued by small farm communities.

The economy in those small towns depend on a lot more than agriculture, but those pursuits also lack the R&D to thrive on their own. UW has people on the ground there in economic development and technology to enable those enterprises to work. They also provide the bulk of nutrition education beyond the trivial amount taught in high-school, which makes Wisconsinites a bit healthier than they'd be otherwise.

Rural Wisconsin depends on UW Madison for a lot, far more than they probably realize.

[polly_mer]

. That said, however, Madison brings a lot to the state too, probably, taken as a whole, at least as much as those small regional state colleges that train the local ps teachers and lawyers-- do people not realize this, or is there hatred for the cultural stuff associated with Madison (and places like this in other states) so strong that they would ignore it?   

Name five things that Madison brings to the state that are valued by the small farm communities.

The "Wisconsin Idea", that the university serve the larger society has been a great example to other states. Research and extension at Wisconsin means that Wisconsin still has dairies. There is a certain amount of rural identity tied to those in Wisconsin. A lot of the dairy folks are aware of that and depend on that resource regularly. Ditto for the rest of agriculture, which will be a lot more than five things valued by small farm communities.

The economy in those small towns depend on a lot more than agriculture, but those pursuits also lack the R&D to thrive on their own. UW has people on the ground there in economic development and technology to enable those enterprises to work. They also provide the bulk of nutrition education beyond the trivial amount taught in high-school, which makes Wisconsinites a bit healthier than they'd be otherwise.

Rural Wisconsin depends on UW Madison for a lot, far more than they probably realize.

I will give you the extension services for agriculture etc,, but it's not generally the Madison faculty doing their faculty thing who are the useful part; it's the extension agents in the community who matter.

I'd never heard of The Wisconsin Idea until long after I had left Wisconsin.  If that's really the goal, then their PR needs a lot of work compared to the stupidity for which UW regularly makes The Wisconsin State Journal.

So that's one thing.  What are the other four?

[Wahoo Redux]

I'd never heard of The Wisconsin Idea until long after I had left Wisconsin.  If that's really the goal, then their PR needs a lot of work compared to the stupidity for which UW regularly makes The Wisconsin State Journal.

So that's one thing.  What are the other four?

Remember the dangers of relying on anecdata.

I think I already provided you at least five.  Not to mention that a lot of your farm kids are gonna end up at UW-M if they are in the top of their classes.  Many will absolutely love it and their parents will be plenty proud. 

You certainly can't think, Polly, that everyone in Wisconsin has your attitude, farm community or not.  That would be insane.

[lightning]

. That said, however, Madison brings a lot to the state too, probably, taken as a whole, at least as much as those small regional state colleges that train the local ps teachers and lawyers-- do people not realize this, or is there hatred for the cultural stuff associated with Madison (and places like this in other states) so strong that they would ignore it?   

Name five things that Madison brings to the state that are valued by the small farm communities.

The "Wisconsin Idea", that the university serve the larger society has been a great example to other states. Research and extension at Wisconsin means that Wisconsin still has dairies. There is a certain amount of rural identity tied to those in Wisconsin. A lot of the dairy folks are aware of that and depend on that resource regularly. Ditto for the rest of agriculture, which will be a lot more than five things valued by small farm communities.

The economy in those small towns depend on a lot more than agriculture, but those pursuits also lack the R&D to thrive on their own. UW has people on the ground there in economic development and technology to enable those enterprises to work. They also provide the bulk of nutrition education beyond the trivial amount taught in high-school, which makes Wisconsinites a bit healthier than they'd be otherwise.

Rural Wisconsin depends on UW Madison for a lot, far more than they probably realize.

I will give you the extension services for agriculture etc,, but it's not generally the Madison faculty doing their faculty thing who are the useful part; it's the extension agents in the community who matter.

I'd never heard of The Wisconsin Idea until long after I had left Wisconsin.  If that's really the goal, then their PR needs a lot of work compared to the stupidity for which UW regularly makes The Wisconsin State Journal.

So that's one thing.  What are the other four?

Polly_mer you named six things in another thread:

What dog do you think I have in this fight?  I'm against most of what UW-Madison does and you want me to defend similar administrative tech stuff for your university? 

OK, but only because I've spent this week on recruiting for my current employer.

1) The family farm has transformed via technology to the point that two people can really make it run.  The collaboration spaces and civic engagement spaces, especially those bring together people from a broad region, allow rapid exchange of ideas to the people who need them. College degree programs don't keep up with technology changes and relying on what  Dad did twenty years ago is the fast way to go broke and often get hit with environmental charges.  Supporting a new community of practice is a much more valuable service than classes that would be recognizable to Grandad.

2) The technology incubators are a way to let new people try out things in the world instead of the classroom.  The industries don't exist yet to hire anyone, but incubators bring together the resources and the hard-working intellects to add to brand-new human knowledge in areas that are rapidly expanding.  The young adults from the dying rural areas can participate in building a future that could save the rural areas by making more choices available through technology.  Yes, that means we may 'lose' a generation of young people as they live elsewhere, but we may gain much more than we lose ten to fifteen years from now when many more jobs can be done from 'anywhere'.

3) The new buildings are more energy efficient, ADA compliant, use newer materials and methods, and are physically safer.  Having more people have access to the meeting places with the power brokers helps everyone.  The rural folks can then send a wider variety of representatives from the community instead of the same people who are always the representatives. Better energy efficiency helps make prices lower for the far flung people who have to invest more heavily in transportation to do anything.  New building methods/materials being tried by people with the money to redo, delay, redo, and retry means the methods become more common and cheaper during the rarer cases of getting to build new in the rural community.

4) Having sufficient people to wrangle the large bureaucracy means the rural communities can get experienced administrators as the good folks opt for a simpler life.  Don't underestimate the value of a great administrator who can promote processes and written consistent policies, especially with office technology.  The modernization in a small place can be very rapid when the lack was knowledge of tools that have become dirt cheap...in large part because of those big bureaucracies elsewhere that have been investing in the office tools for two decades.

5) Assessment innovation programs coupled with the public-private partnerships lets someone else do the expensive trial and error phase.  However, if anything of value comes from the efforts, then the rural folks can join during the expansion phase for much less money and other investment.  The rural areas are dying and need new ideas.  Spreading the cost by having entities that acquire their own funds with some tax money spent is a far better technique than every small rural town doing the experiments on their own with direct, much smaller funding.

6) Big science as done in centers that bring together researchers with various disciplines to work on the big problems together as teams of experts who also mentors some newcomers is how the big problems will be ameliorated.  The single PI atop a pyramid of novices still in training is a terrible model for addressing the important societal problems that are most pressing to the rural folks.  Anyone who cares about actually addressing climate concerns should applaud a center that has many experts and sufficient resources to have regular communication channels to the decision makers.  You don't send the scientists to the government once in a while; you need the glad-handing, relationship builders who can lay the foundation and educate in the necessary terms to be ready with the new funding and laws as necessary.

If one really buys into the idea of the university of serving the people of the state, the most service to the state is outside of the classroom or individual faculty members with their small focused research groups

[fast_and_bulbous]

Thanks Scott Walker!  Your economy is gonna hurt if U-Dub takes a dive.

We don't call it U-Dub. That's University of Washington.

[Stockmann]

Part of the value any university brings to a rural community is the concept that there is something else out there besides an overly developed interest in the price of soybeans.  If nothing else, they provide a way OUT.  Which, of course, is why so many small towners loathe such institutions - they provide a means for the local youth to "git beyond yer raisin' "

I have 2 colleagues who grew up in those kinds of settings.  When the first was preparing to depart for the SLAC he attended as an undergrad, his pastor told him, "Now, they're gonna tell you to keep an open mind.  Don't you do it son.  Your brain may fall out."  The second told her high school friends what she was planning (not just college, but out of state) and was told, "You must really hate your family if you want to do that."

The thing some parents hate more than anything else is the thought that their kids want a world bigger than the small town they were born in...

Yep. Of course small town authority figures are bound to hate big cities - if people leave, they lose any hold over them, esp. as big city anonymity offers a chance at re-inventing oneself, not to mention a livelihood small town bigshots have no power over. If those bigshots are bigshots because of family connections or because they were the popular kids in HS, that's all the more reason for them to hate the big city, as they'd be nobodies there. Plus, people who are unsatisfied with their lives in a small town, perhaps they envy those who got away (the crab pot mentality), or those who got away make them look bad, as a reminder there may be opportunities elsewhere they're not pursuing (I rather suspect hostility towards immigrants among certain folks has similar motivations). Let me guess: dying small towns are the worst for this, because everyone still there is either a local bigshot who'd be a nobody in a city or is pretty unsatisfied.

[marshwiggle]

Plus, people who are unsatisfied with their lives in a small town, perhaps they envy those who got away (the crab pot mentality), or those who got away make them look bad, as a reminder there may be opportunities elsewhere they're not pursuing (I rather suspect hostility towards immigrants among certain folks has similar motivations). Let me guess: dying small towns are the worst for this, because everyone still there is either a local bigshot who'd be a nobody in a city or is pretty unsatisfied.

This is really disparaging of people in small towns. We have vacation property near a small town. The people there are as friendly and accepting as in the city. There are immigrants running some of the businesses in town, and I've never seen any customer say or do anything inappropriate towards any of them*. I grew up in a small town myself, as did both of my parents. That kind of urban hostility helps to keep voting patterns split along rural/urban lines.

(*or towards any of my non-white family members)

[Stockmann]

Plus, people who are unsatisfied with their lives in a small town, perhaps they envy those who got away (the crab pot mentality), or those who got away make them look bad, as a reminder there may be opportunities elsewhere they're not pursuing (I rather suspect hostility towards immigrants among certain folks has similar motivations). Let me guess: dying small towns are the worst for this, because everyone still there is either a local bigshot who'd be a nobody in a city or is pretty unsatisfied.

This is really disparaging of people in small towns. We have vacation property near a small town. The people there are as friendly and accepting as in the city. There are immigrants running some of the businesses in town, and I've never seen any customer say or do anything inappropriate towards any of them*. I grew up in a small town myself, as did both of my parents. That kind of urban hostility helps to keep voting patterns split along rural/urban lines.

(*or towards any of my non-white family members)

Nah, it's just disparaging of small town folks who loathe the cities, not of everyone who lives in or is from a small town. I also didn't say that people who hate immigrants because they make them look bad are necessarily from small towns, nor that everyone in small towns hates immigrants.

[Wahoo Redux]

Thanks Scott Walker!  Your economy is gonna hurt if U-Dub takes a dive.

We don't call it U-Dub. That's University of Washington.

D'oh!  Sorry.  I knew that.  I think I heard Madison referred to as U-Dub-Madison somewhere. 

[Hibush]

Thanks Scott Walker!  Your economy is gonna hurt if U-Dub takes a dive.

We don't call it U-Dub. That's University of Washington.

D'oh!  Sorry.  I knew that.  I think I heard Madison referred to as U-Dub-Madison somewhere.

In Pullman, perhaps?

[Wahoo Redux]

Thanks Scott Walker!  Your economy is gonna hurt if U-Dub takes a dive.

We don't call it U-Dub. That's University of Washington.

D'oh!  Sorry.  I knew that.  I think I heard Madison referred to as U-Dub-Madison somewhere.

In Pullman, perhaps?

Never been there.

[Parasaurolophus]

[https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/08/adrian-college-to-eliminate-humanities-departments-faculty-jobs.html]Adrian College[/url], in Michigan, is cutting history, theatre and religion (since when do those two go together?!), philosophy, and leadership departments. (That's apparently three departments, so something screwy is happening with conjunctions and commas in the reporting.) Looking to eliminate 22 faculty jobs.

[Vkw10]

[https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/08/adrian-college-to-eliminate-humanities-departments-faculty-jobs.html]Adrian College[/url], in Michigan, is cutting history, theatre and religion (since when do those two go together?!), philosophy, and leadership departments. (That's apparently three departments, so something screwy is happening with conjunctions and commas in the reporting.) Looking to eliminate 22 faculty jobs.

Philosophy, religion and leadership is one department. It has five faculty.
http://adrian.edu/academics/academic-departments/philosophy-religion/

[Golazo]

How long till this piece of self-congratulation gets taken down:   http://adrian.edu/about-us/from-the-president/crisisinhighereducation/

"The miracle that Docking and his colleagues have worked is not about fairy dust but an all-too-rare blend of crafting strategic priorities based on a deep understanding of contemporary college student interests, persuading the entire campus community to buy into the vision, and staying the course with uncommon courage and wisdom."

Or was it all a shell game?