A United Council statement called the lack of discussion of higher education in Gov. Scott McCallum's State of the State address Tuesday evening a \glaring"" and ""naive"" omission.
But John Torphy, UW-Madison vice chancellor for administration, said the lack of time devoted to the university was due more to a different focus and message for the speech rather than a change in attitude toward the university.
""I think he was trying to set a different tone for the state: more optimistic and not necessarily conciliatory but more problem solving than problem identifying,"" Torphy said.
In the speech, McCallum talked about UW-Madison directly twice regarding the men's basketball team's successful season and Big Ten Championship, and the Biostar star project, a plan that aims to match state funds with gift contributions dedicated to a series of 10 biotechnology buildings on campus.
McCallum introduced the Badger men's basketball coach during his address as the ""winningest first-year coach in Wisconsin history.""
United Council President Matt Fargen said he was surprised McCallum did not speak more about the UW System, considering ""application rates are growing 8 percent more than the year before.""
""I thought that the governor's speech was about tomorrow and brighter futures,"" Fargen said. ""I don't think we can create a brighter future for Wisconsin without investing in higher education.""
A large portion of McCallum's speech dealt with the state of Wisconsin's economy, something with which UW-Madison and the UW System are closely linked, Torphy said. The Madison Initiative, a plan aiming to improve the general quality of university, that was largely cut due to the $1.1 billion state deficit, is an example of this.
""A lot of what we had in the Madison Initiative was focused on the state's economy,"" Torphy said.
Developing terminal masters programs and certificate programs were aspects of the initiative, Torphy said, that would affect the state's economy.
Fargen said the state of the economy made it even more important for McCallum to address the UW System.
""With the state of our economy what it is, people want to go back to school to be trained,"" he said.
When asked what he would have written if he could have rewritten the speech, Fargen said he would have emphasized that the UW System is the ""engine that drives the state's economy.""
""If we're going to look toward a brighter future, we must invest in the [UW-System], the Wisconsin Technical College System and continue to show our support for K-12 education,"" Fargen said.
