Associated Students of Madison urged state lawmakers to pass the governor's proposed budget for the well-being of faculty and students on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday.
In particular, ASM said the funding is necessary for faculty retention and the overall quality of students' education.
Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed budget allots $180 million to the UW System, with $70 million for UW-Madison. An amount of $10 million is specifically for faculty retention.
The Legislature is currently negotiating the official amount the budget would give UW. The Senate's budget approves Doyle's $180 million, while the Assembly's version would only give $62 million total.
Jeff Wright, chair of ASM's Shared Governance Committee, addressed the negative consequences for UW-Madison students if the Assembly's version of the budget is passed.
In the past four years, state funding has fallen 7 percent, causing students' educators, mentors and advisors to resign, Wright said.
He said as faculty members resign, students' educations are directly affected through increasing class sizes and decreasing course offerings. More students are also being assigned to each advisor.
These trends are having a demonstrable impact on the quality of our education,"" Wright said.
For years, research conducted by UW-Madison faculty and students has contributed to solving social and scientific issues of both the state and the nation.
Wright cited former UW-Madison professor Harry Steenbock, who in 1925 researched ways to enrich food with Vitamin D, as an example of a type of accomplishment that would not be possible without a sufficient state budget.
Wright said now that state funding is decreasing, UW-Madison's faculty members are moving to ""greener pastures where salaries are higher and resources to sustain their research are more readily available.""
Hannah Karns, chair of ASM's Legislative Affairs Committee, stressed the university's need for ""cost-to-continue resources that are necessary for '¦ maintaining current academic programs.""
""The University of Wisconsin-Madison should be a thriving institution, not just a surviving one,"" Karns said.
Other UW-Madison student leaders agreed.
""It doesn't make sense for the state to be growing but for the educational budget to be shrinking,"" said Max Bruner, co-chair of the UW-Madison chapter of the Roosevelt Institute.
""Senator Russ Feingold and all these leaders at one time passed through the university, and it doesn't follow for there not to be more funding for the university to support more leaders coming out of it,"" he added.
ASM leaders emphasized that budget cuts jeopardize both students' class sizes and academic programming.
""Students should be more concerned about their education here at UW-Madison,"" Wright said. ""If we have to endure another round of [budget cuts], it's going to have a very lasting impact across the university.
