Madison Initiative for Undergraduates

Investing in the Quality, Value and Affordability of Undergraduate Education

CALS Chairs and APC Retreat

UW Arboretum

May 21, 2009

How did this initiative come about?

• Concerns rising about faculty losses

• Alumni concerned with potential erosion of quality

• Students facing course bottlenecks, worried about timely graduation

• Students who apply for financial aid receiving more loans and less grant money while “unmet need” grows

It’s about…preserving quality• Over the past 160 years, Wisconsin has

built a world-class institution

• Ranked 17th in Academic Ranking of World Universities

• Ranked 3rd nationally in external R&D funding

• A top producer of Peace Corps volunteers

• A leader in number of S&P 500 CEOs

Current Context• The value of a world-class research university

has never been greater.

• For individuals, the “college premium” in earnings grew from 35% to 60% between 1980 and 2005.

• For society, university research has played a vital role in creating the knowledge economy.

• As a result of these growing benefits, demand for higher education and research universities has grown worldwide.

• The growth and world-wide expansion of higher education have increased the cost of educating every individual student.

• Funding support has not kept pace.

Current Context(Continued)

Financing Higher EducationThe Four-Legged Stool

Federal Funding-Restricted and focused on research

State Funding-Historically the primary source of operating budget-Faces increasing pressures

Private Fundraising-Has grown significantly but has historically focused on capital projects and targeted programs

Tuition-A growing source of revenue that peer schools have relied on more heavily

1. Add faculty and instructional support so we can offer the courses, majors and experiences students need;

2. Improve critical student services, e.g. academic and career advising;

3. Preserve affordability of a UW-Madison education.

The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates will:

Program Components• In-state students: Pay a supplemental

tuition charge that grows cumulatively by $250 per year over a four-year period

• Out-of-state students: Pay a supplemental tuition charge that grows cumulatively by $750 per year over a four-year period

• Students whose family incomeis less than $80,000 and are eligible for need-based financial aid, will receive grants to offset the supplemental tuition charge

Outcomes

• Tuition well below Big Ten median • Significantly increased financial aid

resources• Significantly enhanced undergraduate

education• Preservation of university quality and

long-term value of degree

Madison Initiative for UndergraduatesProgram Budget

FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13

Faculty & Instructional

Support$ 3,875,000 $7,750,000 $11,625,000 $15,500,000

Curricular Innovation &

Student Services

$1,275,000 $2,550,000 $3,825,000 $5,100,000

Financial Aid $5,100,000 $10,200,000 $15,300,000 20,400,000

Total Budget

$10,250,000 $20,500,000 $30,750,000 $41,000,000

ProjectedActual

Need-Based Financial Aid

• We currently have $20 million in unmet need

• Initiative will create pool of financial aid resources to help our neediest students and will increase applications for aid

• The hold-harmless provision represents a fraction of the total financial aid pool that will be available

• Goal is to exceed tuition dollars raised with private giving

• Adjusted gross income (AGI) of $80,000 was selected because median family income in Wisconsin is $62,000

• AGI is fairest in providing aid to neediest families

Faculty and Instructional Support

• Increase the number of faculty teaching in undergraduate courses

• Improve access to high-demand majors

• Increase access to high-demand courses

• Decrease bottlenecks

Defining High Demand…• Majors

– Biology = a handful of majors 10 years ago to 300 majors every year

– Economics = 70% increase• Courses

– Gateway courses such as General Chemistry, Intro to Psych, Principles of Microeconomics, Calculus have extremely high enrollments

– Only 1/3 of students seeking economics electives can be accommodated

– Intro biology course averages 80 people on the wait list each fall

– Past spring term more than 350 students could not be accommodated in Spanish courses

– Demand exceeds capacity by about 300 seats in Intro to Organic Chemistry

“We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…

using technologies that haven’t been invented…

in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

From Shift Happens, 2006 & 2008

This initiative is helping to spark conversations around how we think about higher education and what it means to have a degree from UW-Madison…

What should be core, critical thinking components of the curriculum?

How do we anticipate “market” demands?

How do we build an agile environment that allows us to meet the future head-on…

Faculty and Instructional Support Requirements

• Departmental commitment to improving undergraduate education

• Demonstrate need in terms of high-demand courses and majors

• Regular budget decision-making methods will be used

• Outside of L&S17 faculty hires, $2.7 million with accountability to initiative oversight committee

Curricular Innovation/PedagogicalImprovement – Possible Scenarios

• Freshmen Interest Groups(double in size: 7.5 faculty, $950,000)• Undergraduate Research Scholars (expand, $50,000)• Residential Learning Communities (six additional, $600,000)• Capstones, Internships, Service Learning ($300,000)• Academic Advising(8 additional advisors, $600,000)• Academic Technologies (staffing and tools, $1 million)

Pursuing Private Support

• Need-based aid identified as campus-wide fundraising priority

• Intensify Great People Scholarship Campaign

• Strategic multi-tiered approach– High-capacity individuals– Mid-level donors– Corporations and foundations– Leverage new technology for smaller

annual giving

How will students, faculty and staff continue to be involved?

• Shared governance oversight committee of faculty, staff and students

• Specific student subcommittee to address student services component

• Role in accountability, ongoing evaluation

• Undergraduate Student Success at UW–Madison Academic / Career Advising Access to Tenure-Track Faculty Access to Majors First-year Experience & First-year Interest Groups Innovative Classroom Experience Need-Based Financial Aid Access to Courses

www.MadisonInitiative.wisc.edu