Reclaiming the public university in Wisconsin
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2456
This commentary discusses the shift to austerity in the University of Wisconsin System, in the context of Wisconsin’s urban, public doctoral research university in the city of Milwaukee. Critical discourses based on “the Wisconsin Idea” insist upon the necessity for both academic freedom and public support to higher education. 
application/pdf
2239-625X
2456
1
en
Tracey Heatherington
Anuac
Reclaiming the public university in Wisconsin
Text.Serial.Journal
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac
5
Forum: Anthropologists in/of the Neoliberal Academy
2016-08-13
2016-08-06
2016-08-13
63-66
1
Tracey Heatherington
2016
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2456
63
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
2239-625X
1
en
66
Reclaiming the public university in Wisconsin
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac/article/download/2456/2088
5
                                                       2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90




                                                                                                      FORUM




Student-led demonstration, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, February 4, 2015. Overpass Light Brigade, Joe Brusky
photographer. Source: overpasslightbrigade.org/love-light-for-uw-fight-the-cuts/.



Anthropologists in/of the neoliberal academy
Edited by
Tracey HEATHERINGTON & Filippo M. ZERILLI

Contributions of
Cris SHORE & Susan WRIGHT, Vintilă MIHĂILESCU, Sarah GREEN, Gabriela VARGAS-CETINA
& Steffan Igor AYORA-DIAZ, Tracey HEATHERINGTON, Dimitris DALAKOGLOU, Noelle MOLÉ
LISTON, Susana NAROTZKY, Jaro STACUL, Meredith WELCH-DEVINE, Jon P. MITCHELL.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)
Anthropologists in/of the Neoliberal Academy
2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2437
TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)                                                  63




Reclaiming the public university in Wisconsin
Tracey HEATHERINGTON
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee


ABSTRACT: This commentary discusses the shift to austerity in the University of Wisconsin System,
in the context of Wisconsin’s urban, public doctoral research university in the city of Milwaukee.
Critical discourses based on “the Wisconsin Idea” insist upon the necessity for both academic free-
dom and public support to higher education.




    In May 2016, a month or so after we issued invitations to participate in this collec-
tion of commentaries on anthropology in/of the neoliberal academy, faculty members
across the University of Wisconsin System stepped forward to contest recent state re-
forms of public higher education. Four years after the controversial 2011 Wisconsin
Act 10 removed the right of unionized collective bargaining and significantly reduced
job benefits for most public employees including faculty, the state passed draconian
budget cuts to higher education for the 2015-2017 biennium, while simultaneously re-
moving principles of academic freedom that had been enshrined in state law for a cen-
tury. Once it became clear that political appointees on the University of Wisconsin Sys-
tem Board of Regents had failed to protect the primacy of tenure and shared gov-
ernance as mechanisms ensuring that program decisions would be made on the grounds
of academic concerns, rather than economic interests, symbolic statements of “no con-
fidence” passed Faculty Senates first at the flagship campus in Madison, and then at
several other campuses. At the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, the state’s only
urban, public, doctoral research institution, a full faculty meeting was called to discuss
the resolution. It was the first full faculty quorum in two decades.
    The May 10th meeting at UW-Milwaukee was organized by the elected University
Committee, in collaboration with local leadership of the American Association of Uni-
versity Professionals and the American Federation of Teachers. While neither of the
latter associations have authority to represent faculty in collective bargaining, the col-
leagues and graduate students working with them have volunteered their energy to help
guide and coordinate faculty responses to changes in state higher education policy. So
many faculty answered the call to lift their voices that the 124 members required for
quorum was quickly established, and the 175-seat auditorium was filled far beyond ca-
pacity, with standing room only. News media reported there were nearly 300 faculty,


                                                2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
64                                                  ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN/OF THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY


close to 40% of all Assistant, Associate and Full Professors on campus. The Secretary
of the University was hunting for a room with more capacity when participants insisted
on calling the meeting to order immediately. The Chancellor gave the floor to Rachel
Ida Buff, President of the UWM AAUP chapter established in fall 2015. She made
these remarks:
      Colleagues,
      We gather here today as bearers of a sacred trust. As stewards of the University of Wis-
      consin, we are the keepers of the Wisconsin idea: that crucial, democratic notion that the
      “beneficent influence of the University (should) reach every home in the state”… The
      Wisconsin Idea promotes educational democracy: the university is funded by and serves
      the public… But in the past eighteen months, our ability to carry out our stewardship of
      the Wisconsin Idea has been impaired by a legislative assault on shared governance and
      academic freedom. This political assault has been accompanied by unprecedented fiscal
      cuts, impairing our ability to educate and serve our students… By voting no confidence
      we protest the intentional destruction of our internationally recognized university
      system… (AAUP//UWM 2016).

    Faculty members took turns reading paragraphs of the resolution from the floor.
When fire marshals advised the Chancellor to move the crowd to another venue, the
question was called without discussion and the resolution of “no confidence” passed un-
animously. The resounding consensus filled the room in a voice vote. Following a year
of many contentious governance meetings, budget forums, media chatter and constant
worry, this moment of absolute, unified clarity brought tears to my eyes. One week
later, the UW-Milwaukee Academic Staff Senate also gathered to enact its own “no
confidence” resolution. It was the first and only staff body in the system to do so.
    What inspired these historic precedents? Why does the “Wisconsin Idea”, a vision
defined by progressives of the early twentieth century, continue to have so much reson-
ance? When early drafts of the 2015 state budget tried to alter UWS Ch. 36, the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin System mission statement, removing «to serve and stimulate soci-
ety», «to educate people and improve the human condition», and «the search for
truth», while substituting the mission «to meet the state workforce needs» (Kertscher
2015), there was vehement public criticism. The “Wisconsin Idea” embodied in the
UWS mission statement affirms higher education as a cornerstone of distributed
prosperity (cf. McCarthy 1912). As wealth and income disparities in America reach
shocking proportions today, this is an idea worth standing for.
    Both the downtrend in overall public funding to higher education, and the rising in-
equalities between flagships and secondary campuses reflect a broader pattern emerging
in the United States. Since the recession of 2008, state funding to public university sys-
tems fell by an average of 20%, while tuition and fees increased by an average of 29%,
far outpacing the growth of median household income (Mitchell, Leachman 2015).
Commentators note that flagship campuses cater increasingly to the economic elite,
while student debt associated with the cost of education has become debilitating for
those from modest backgrounds (see Goldrick-Rab 2014; Goldberg 2015; Hiltzik

2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)                                          65


2015; Konzcal 2015). In this context, talking about the vital legacy of the “Wisconsin
Idea” unmasks economic austerity as an ideology that naturalizes racism and social in-
equality in higher education.
    Structural disparities between campuses within public university systems impact the
quality of access to education for minority and first-generation students, just as dispar-
ities in funding across fields may impact what they are able to study. Federal initiatives
favouring STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) have
already transformed the academic landscape. The liberal arts are particularly at risk, as
austerity discourses in several states have targeted subjects including Gender Studies,
Philosophy, French literature and Anthropology as areas of learning and research that
should not be “subsidized” in public institutions. In Wisconsin, Assembly Speaker
Robin Vos openly touted the agenda behind the Walker administration policy reforms
when he said, «Of course I want research, but I want to have research done in a way
that focuses on growing our economy, not on ancient mating habits of whatever» (in
Johnson 2014). Recent state legislation makes it possible for university administrators
to cut faculty and programs based on financial assessments and priorities.
    Historically, the University of Wisconsin System has been celebrated for a much
broader vision of research and academic freedom (Hansen 1998). This tradition is
lately a target for the scorn of conservatives, who typically contend that universities are
bastions of liberalism. Yet both major political parties in the U.S. contribute to the tide
of rhetoric and reform that is changing America’s public universities from the inside
out. Wisconsin’s “liberal” state representative, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, helped
lead the “Manufacturing Universities” bill passed in June 2016. This bill «authorizes
the Department of Defense to support industry-relevant, manufacturing-focused, engin-
eering training at U.S. universities» (Baldwin 2016). A press release explains, «Institu-
tions would be selected through a competitive grant-based process and would be re-
quired to better align their educational offerings with the needs of modern U.S. manu-
facturers» (ivi).
    Urban research universities like UW-Milwaukee represent a fount of creativity and
innovation, but also a necessary space for building social tolerance, critical thinking
and democratic participation. These shared benefits are threatened when academics are
belittled, subject offerings narrowed, and the students reduced to a mere “workforce”,
effectively enslaved to the business sector. When faculty and staff challenge this by de-
fending the Wisconsin Idea, they seek to reclaim the university as a public resource:
not only a viable means of social mobility, but also a way to expand knowledge, speak
truth to power, and strive for common good. This is ultimately about why our academic
fields matter in the world, what we do for others, and what kind of work we will be
able to do in the future.
    Anthropologists have long recognized that our fieldwork is inherently tangled up
with social, economic and political relations of power; we cannot ignore that our aca-
demic lives are unmistakably caught up in these relations too. We are well prepared to


                                             2016 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 5, N° 1, GIUGNO 2016: 41-90
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grasp how neoliberal logics and audit cultures grow variously entangled with specific
contexts and institutional practices. As we bring ethnographic methods and critical ana-
lysis to bear on our own experiences as university professionals, anthropologists can
help understand the transformations taking place in higher education, and learn to
shape them.

REFERENCES

AAUP//UWM, 2016, No Confidence, American Association of University Professionals UW-
       Milwaukee Chapter Blog, uwmaaup.org, May 10, 2016.
Baldwin, Tammy, 2016, Bipartisan ‘Manufacturing Universities’ Legislation Passes Senate,
       Press Release, June 17, 2016. www.baldwin.senate.gov
Goldberg, Chad Allen, 2016, Why I wrote the no-confidence resolution at UW-Madison, Cap-
       ital Times, May 11, 2016.
Goldrick-Rab, Sara, 2014, Promoting Economic Diversity for College Affordability, in R.
       Kahlenberg, ed, The Future of Affirmative Action, Washington, DC, Association for Pub-
       lic Policy Analysis and Management.
Hansen, W. Lee, 1998, Academic Freedom on Trial: 100 Years of Sifting and Winnowing at the
       University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, University of Wisconsin.
Hiltzik, Michael, 2015, From Wisconsin to California, The decline of Public Higher Ed Con-
       tinues, Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2015.
Johnson, Shaun, 2014, Assembly Speaker Vos Discusses Republican Agenda For Next Session,
       Wisconsin Public Radio, Wednesday, November 5, 2014. www.wpr.org/assembly-spea-
       ker-vos-discusses-republican-agenda-next-session
Kertscher, Tom, 2015, Despite deliberate actions, Scott Walker calls change to university mis-
       sion a “drafting error”, Politifact Wisconsin, February 6, 2015. www.politifact.com/wis-
       consin/statements/2015/feb/06/scott-walker/despite-deliberate-actions-scott-walker-cal-
       ls-chan/#
Konzcal, Mike, 2015, What’s Left After Higher Education is Dismantled, Rolling Stone, May
       28, 2015.
McCarthy, Charles, 1912, The Wisconsin Idea, New York, NY, MacMillan. Archived at
       archive.org/stream/cu31924032449252/cu31924032449252_djvu.txt.
Mitchell, Michael, Michael Leachman, 2015, Years of Cuts Threaten to Put College Out of
       Reach for More Students, Report, May 13, 2015, Washington, DC, Center on Budget
       and Policy Priorities, www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/years-of-cuts-threat-
       en-to-put-college-out-of-reach-for-more-students#_ftn4.




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