Monday, August 5, 2013

Thoughts About the Future of UW-Madison? Please Share!

We are welcoming a new chancellor to UW-Madison this fall, along with many other new leaders.  I have been receiving many emails from colleagues and students expressing feelings (both positive and negative) about campus life and the direction it is taking, and in response I will soon begin to host Room for Debate- style forums on key topics. The intention is to provide our community with a sense of the array of opinions, and share insights with our administrators-- including Chancellor Rebecca Blank.

I welcome your participation. Please email me at srab@education.wisc.edu with suggestions as to what questions the forums should be asking, and who you'd like to hear from.   This is open to anyone in the UW-Madison community, very broadly defined-- including community members, people working at other institutions, etc.

In addition, please email me if you are willing to contribute your opinion to the forums.  If you have a compelling reason to write anonymously (and there are many) I will be happy to publish you that way.

The first several forums will address these topics, so please let me know right away if you want to write about any of them:

1. How should the UW-Madison community work to ensure that its relationship with the people of the state of Wisconsin improves over the next 10 years?

2. What rules of conduct or guidelines should govern the interaction of private philanthropy, including UW Foundation, with UW-Madison?

3. What role should academic deans play with regard to academic departments moving forward?

4. How should UW-Madison work to create new leaders to fill administrative positions at the university in coming years?