Igal Hendel, a former UW-Madison economics professor, resigned two years ago along with several other professors due to the declining salaries and resources of the university.
Hendel is now a professor at Northwestern, making the popular switch from a public institution to a private institution.
In the long run, Northwestern might be a more stable institution than UW-Madison,"" he said.
Although Hendel said there was ""plenty of state money"" supporting UW-Madison when he left in 2005, a public institution is always more in danger of budget cuts than a private one.
Hendel describes Northwestern as having a ""very strong economics department"" and a more ""active and challenging environment."" Also, having grown up in a big city, he prefers Northwestern for its close proximity to Chicago.
According to the Summary of Faculty Outside Offers, 116 of 2,220 faculty members received outside offers in the 2005-'06 academic year, twice as many as the 2000-'01 academic year.
Hendel explained it was more the future risk that the economics department would eventually be unable to respond to the crisis - that being the possibility the university will lose the financial capability to provide each department with resources.
*An unnerving trend*
Last year, 26 professors resigned from their positions, a continuing trend from the past two years.
UW-Madison's retention rate in the 2005-'06 school year was 57 percent, 18 percent lower than it was seven years ago.
""We try to increase their salaries to the extent that we can and help them with research support,"" Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences said.
According to Sandefur, a significant portion of the university's budget goes toward faculty salaries. Despite this large allotment, something continues to draw our professors to other schools.
""Much of the decision [about salary] that we make is outside the control of people at the university,"" Sandefur said. Moreover, all of the schools within UW-Madison operate under the same budgetary restraints.
Joe Soss, former UW-Madison professor, left to work at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities because of his low salary, as well as other factors.
In a Wisconsin Public Radio interview, Soss revealed what compelled him to leave UW-Madison.
""Over the past several decades, the state of Wisconsin has really been withdrawing support from the University of Wisconsin,"" Soss said.
In fact, according to Chancellor John D. Wiley, 30 years ago, state revenue included about 43 percent of the university's budget. Ten years ago, state revenue included about 27 percent. Last year, state revenue accounted for just 19 percent, an all-time low.
""When you withdraw support for a university like that, over time you really put pressure on and undermine almost every aspect of the institution,"" Soss said.
According to Soss, after the university lost funding for its resources, classroom sizes began to grow. Professors' funds are no longer sufficient for hiring the support of administrative staff, and they have lost the ability to ""pursue creative new directions to attract new faculty and stay at the forefront of their fields.""
In order to stay at the forefront, the school must continue to raise salaries of professors because having the best faculty members on campus requires competitive pay and a desirable work climate, Michael Knetter, dean of the School of Business, said.
""[Professors] can all agree that this is a better place if it pays better,"" Knetter said.
*Looking elsewhere*
Hendel said his biggest reason for leaving was the lack of resources within his department.
Other public universities have more control over the price and tuition, Knetter said. For instance, the University of Michigan's business school has complete control over professors' salaries. However, unlike UW-Madison, Michigan keeps all the tuition revenue they generate.
If UW-Madison were to operate like the University of Michigan, students would be paying higher tuition. By charging its students higher tuition, the University of Michigan can ""pursue the quality of objectives they want to pursue,"" Knetter said.
""Our tuition is the second lowest tuition in the Big Ten. But if we increased it, we would make sure it wouldn't adversely affect low income families,"" Sandefur said.
""There were some professors who had gone on leave to look at positions elsewhere,"" Sandefur said. Perhaps those professors will return after they consider the academic prestige of UW-Madison. Or perhaps salary will continue to be the deciding factor between schools.
Hendel did not consider UW-Madison's economic department to be too scarce in resources at the time that he left, but he became skeptical when the department never actually improved in his three years of teaching at the university.
""It's a symptom of [UW-Madison's] main instability. Sure UW will recover; but it would be much healthier if it didn't go through the cycles,"" he said.
*Within departments*
Political science, sociology and English departments were hit the hardest in the past two years. In fact, last year, half the professors that left were from those three departments.
The School of Business and the College of Engineering faculty get higher salaries than other schools because of raised tuition for students in those schools.
The Departmental Faculty Salary Data shows the average nine-month salary for the professors in the School of Business was $181,313. However, the average nine-month salary for professors in the College of Letters and Sciences was only $74,076, a difference of $107,237. Similarly, that same salary for professors in the College of Engineering was $180,353, a difference of $106,277.
Last April, the School of Business instated differential tuition for business majors so that the department could retain professors, Knetter said.
Similarly, last year, the School of Engineering raised the tuition for its students ""so that we could see an increase in the quality of our education whether it meant having more professors, getting new equipment or offering more services,"" Emilie Siverling, senior co-president of the Polygon Engineering Student Council, said.
""There's no magic here. A university, like almost any other big organization that relies on really talented human resources to be excellent, needs money,"" said Knetter. According to Knetter, the ideal way for any university to retain money is to balance state tax money, tuition dollars and private donations to fund the educational mission.
Other schools are experiencing higher growth in their unrestricted funding sources that they use to pay for faculty, Knetter said. Namely, private institutions rely more heavily on endowments set up by private gifts.
""Private support and tuition are somehow going to have to pick up the slack; otherwise we're going to need to get a smaller university,"" Knetter said.
Last year, 99 percent of the MBA graduate students made a gift to the Business school at graduation.
""That's inspirational to alumni,"" Knetter said. ""When they see that the students are willing to step up into a part to maintain quality, we can try to make this work.
