From Nancy Langston
Albany
For 16 years, as a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, I have educated the citizens of this state. I have watched my class sizes rise, until now I teach 250 students each fall in a single course, and I have watched my salary fall for the past decade. The governor says that his budget repair bill is necessary to bring public compensation in line with the private sector. But if this were the case, we would be due a substantial raise. The independent Economic Policy Institute found that those of us with a doctorate in the public sector earn 29 percent less total compensation than our peers in the private sector. The governor claims he needs to destroy our collective bargaining rights because we have refused to negotiate. But this is simply untrue. For the past decade, we have made substantial concessions to help the state address budget deficits. For 10 years, we have forgone our raises. In 2000, salaries of UW-Madison faculty were equal to the median salaries for our peer group in similar public universities. But after 10 years of salary concessions, our average salaries have dropped to 11.5 percent less than our peer group. We are now at the very bottom of our peer universities - below Purdue, Indiana, and even Michigan State. And this was before the last two years of furloughs, which cut our salaries by an additional 3 percent each year. Why did we agree to these concessions? Not because we couldn't find better jobs elsewhere. Many of us have been courted by private and public universities outside the state, but we have stayed in Wisconsin because we believe that our research, service, and teaching can lead to a better life for our state's citizens. We have stayed because we believe in public education for the public good, not just in private education for the elite few. We have stayed because we believe in the fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas that has long marked the University of Wisconsin. We have stayed because we believed that a great state deserves a great university, and we were proud to be part of both. Destroying collective bargaining rights will do nothing to address the budget. Please do not support the governor's budget repair bill. The damage it would do could take a generation to heal.
Albany
For 16 years, as a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, I have educated the citizens of this state. I have watched my class sizes rise, until now I teach 250 students each fall in a single course, and I have watched my salary fall for the past decade. The governor says that his budget repair bill is necessary to bring public compensation in line with the private sector. But if this were the case, we would be due a substantial raise. The independent Economic Policy Institute found that those of us with a doctorate in the public sector earn 29 percent less total compensation than our peers in the private sector. The governor claims he needs to destroy our collective bargaining rights because we have refused to negotiate. But this is simply untrue. For the past decade, we have made substantial concessions to help the state address budget deficits. For 10 years, we have forgone our raises. In 2000, salaries of UW-Madison faculty were equal to the median salaries for our peer group in similar public universities. But after 10 years of salary concessions, our average salaries have dropped to 11.5 percent less than our peer group. We are now at the very bottom of our peer universities - below Purdue, Indiana, and even Michigan State. And this was before the last two years of furloughs, which cut our salaries by an additional 3 percent each year. Why did we agree to these concessions? Not because we couldn't find better jobs elsewhere. Many of us have been courted by private and public universities outside the state, but we have stayed in Wisconsin because we believe that our research, service, and teaching can lead to a better life for our state's citizens. We have stayed because we believe in public education for the public good, not just in private education for the elite few. We have stayed because we believe in the fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas that has long marked the University of Wisconsin. We have stayed because we believed that a great state deserves a great university, and we were proud to be part of both. Destroying collective bargaining rights will do nothing to address the budget. Please do not support the governor's budget repair bill. The damage it would do could take a generation to heal.
