With state funding for the UW System possibly taking a hit in this year's budget, some Republican legislators are suggesting university officials look more to private funding.
The main argument by UW System officials against this recommendation is that most private funding comes with strings attached, as donors often earmark their donations for a certain purpose.
UW-Madison was among the top ten recipients in the country in terms of private support to colleges and universities for the 2000-'01 fiscal year, according to a study issued March 22. It received $292 million.
Harvard University led in donations that totaled $683 million and Stanford came in second with $469 million.
\I think that goes to show you that the people at UW-Madison in particular can do an excellent job finding private money,"" said Mike Mikalsen, a research assistant for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater.
Mikalsen said he thought UW-System officials would be able to make up for resources lost from state funding through private sources.
""[UW-System officials] seem to be implying that their private-sector sponsors, who have been very good to the UW System, will not assist them in this time of need,"" Mikalsen said. ""I think that's somewhat short-sighted.""
But this attempt to increase support from private sources is ""really already happening,"" said John Torphy, UW-Madison vice chancellor for administration.
According to Torphy, the portion of the university's budget coming from private funds has grown substantially while the portion from the state has declined significantly in recent years.
""The reality is very few people want to give money for what they believe is the core instructional mission of the institution,"" Torphy said. ""They believe that the state ought to provide that.""
A large portion of the private funding is given with conditions, according to the 2000 annual report for the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the official fund-raising and gift-receiving organization for UW-Madison.
From a total of $137,029,236 in gifts, $582,229 was given under the category ""unrestricted."" Other gifts are designated to areas like different colleges or Memorial Union.
The Medical School received the most in private gifts in 2000 with more than $30 million. Another large area for gifts was titled ""miscellaneous restricted"" with more than $20 million.
""With a lot of gift money that comes in, people think 'Well, gee whiz. You've got all that money'you can use it for everything',"" Torphy said. ""The answer is no you can't. You have to use it for what the donor provides it for.""
Mikalsen said it is often the case that officials treat this money as their ""pet funds.""
""It becomes a circumstance when the UW System wants to go out and spend some money on something that the bureaucrats or executives want, they can always find private sector donations,"" he said. ""But now, when we're talking about undergraduate education, why isn't the chancellor, rather than finding excuses, simply saying, ""I'm going to go out and try to find the private sector funds to help us through this problem'?\
