Almost a year after taking UW-Madison's top position, Chancellor John Wiley sat down with The Daily Cardinal to talk about three issues'campus climate, the university's budget and strategic planning'he targeted as top priorities.
You had several Chancellor [Forums] with students, some involving city officials, addressing the drinking culture on campus. Have you come any closer to identifying specific problems and finding answers to ease binge drinking?
There's only one problem, and I know exactly what it is. But, I don't know any better than anyone else how to address it, or whether it will ever be completely solved. ... Individuals drinking to the point where they get totally plastered, drinking to the point where it is literally physically dangerous to them and to other people. It's the only problem I care about on the alcohol front. I'm not a prude. I'm not a prohibitionist. I drink myself ... I'm not terribly concerned about the underage, overage drinking issue. How to deal with it? I don't think there's any one thing that's going to solve it. ... But I don't think we can responsibly just sit back and ignore it, and say, \Well, nothing is going to work so we won't try.""
Taking into account the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, do you feel that campus climate has improved since you first became Chancellor? Has it gotten better, worse, stayed the same?
I wouldn't have any basis to say, honestly. I would like to say that it has gotten better, but I don't have any evidence of that. And, I think, quite frankly, that the people who are in the best position to judge are the people most at risk for feeling the hostile environment. That's why I had the listening sessions, to try to find out.
As far as diversity on campus goes, articulate the administration's top priority in addressing this issue.
I think that's pretty clear. And there are all kinds of diversity, but Plan 2008 is aimed primarily at racial, ethnic diversity on campus. Diversity has two components: No. 1, simply the numbers. We simply don't have enough people who are non-white on this campus to achieve the kind of day-to-day diversity that makes it feel like a diverse place. Secondly, the climate on campus. It's one thing to attract people here; it's another to make them feel like they're a part of the university and are welcomed and a valued member of the community.
One of your top priorities outlined in February was budget issues.
We came out very, very well, in all three pieces of our budget. ... Now, that's the good news. The bad news is that in the meantime, the state economy has gotten even worse. And, right now the governor is estimating a deficit of somewhere between probably half a billion and one and a half billion. ... And, if it's in the top end of that, it's undoubtedly going to be budget cuts for all the state agencies, probably including us.
Broadly explain how the university is and plans on maintaining its status as one of the top universities nationwide.
""Connecting Ideas"" [a booklet authored by Wiley outlining goals for improving UWMadison] is a short-form version of what we are doing and planning to remain competitive. ... We're in great shape in a lot of areas. The budgets have never been better. ... The UW Foundation, our fund-raising organization, had its best year ever last year. And, they're running ahead of that so far this year. WARF is in great shape. They had an all-time record year in terms of patent disclosures, licences signed, royalties and revenues. So, all of our major revenue sources are moving along.We've identified the areas where we think we fall short, climate being one of them. ... We're trying to humanize the personnel system on campus. ... These are just some of the elements. We've tried to look ahead and ask what are the areas that are not at the tip of everyone's tongue, not at the forefront of everyone's thoughts today, but will be in a few years.
