In a story in Tuesday's Daily Cardinal I am quoted as saying that because of the problems in the private student loan market, UW Stout and UW Barron will likely close within the next three years. This is not an accurate quotation, and I am writing to request that you publish a retraction, and the following explanation.
The context of the quotation was a panel discussion about the current financial crisis in the housing and credit markets. A questioner asked how bad things could get if the government did nothing and simply allowed the crisis to run its course. I responded by saying that the consequences could be disastrous, including business failures and loss of employment. In order to sharpen the point, I particularly singled out higher education. Small private schools and smaller public colleges and universities depend on student loans, public money for scholarships, bond issues, and credit in order to remain in operation. If nothing is done, I suggested, many of those schools would close, and as examples I mentioned that while I do not think there are any circumstances under which UW-Madison would be shuttered I could easily see that fate befalling some of the smaller campuses such as Barron and Stout. I also pointed out that recent articles - including one in the New York Times of the preceding day - recounted ways in which colleges are already cutting back by firing instructors, instituting hiring freezes, and cutting back on financial aid.
The context of those comments was further clarified later in the discussion when I talked about what I see as the enormity of the threat to higher education. Today in the United States we have the highest rates of home ownership and post-secondary education in our history. There has been great public attention paid to the risks to homeownership; I do not feel that the public has focused nearly enough on the threat to young Americans' access to higher education. When I and the other panelists were asked for specific recommendations for future actions, I called for the federal government to develop a plan specifically aimed at preserving the public system of higher education. In explaining the importance of such intervention I made the observation that a decline in access to higher education would have profound consequences for American society, reversing a trend that began after World War II with the GI Bill, the expansion of the public higher education system, and the creation of student loans and related funding mechanisms.
All of the preceding are comments that I made yesterday evening. I would add that there is a great need to bring the risks to American higher education to the attention of the public. Our system of colleges is far more important to our nation's future than our automotive industry, but is receiving far less attention. To reiterate, I did not predict that public colleges in Wisconsin would be closed in the next three years. (For that matter, it was another panelist - not me - who proposed that the private student loan industry faces imminent collapse.) I did attempt to raise a warning about the dangers of the present crisis to American higher education, a warning that I would hope all of us who are involved in that system will do everything to bring to the attention of the public and our governmental leaders.
- Howard Schweber
Associate Professor of Political Science and Law
UW-Madison
