Chancellor Biddy Martin has conducted four brainstorming sessions since December to hear what students and others have to say concerning possible ways the administration could save money. A plethora of ideas came forward, some easily attainable and some far-fetched. The one thing the ideas have in common thus far is none has been implemented in any useful capacity.
Although the Chancellor never announced she would take immediate action on any of the suggestions, nor should she feel pressured to recklessly implement cost-saving techniques, there are some suggestions that are easy and should be put into place immediately.
First and foremost, UW-Madison has a capable network of online tools in Learn@UW and MyUW, so professors should feel compelled to post as many items to the Web as possible rather than making mass-print outs. Furthermore, no professor or teaching assistant should generally deny the use of a computer in the classroom, which unfortunately still occasionally happens on campus.
Information technology serves to rid the need for paper - while cutting costs and increasing efficiency - so UW-Madison should acquaint itself with current technology it already has in place and immediately save money. And to think, the Chancellor could send out a letter asking professors to post handouts online; it's that easy.
Although there are greater and longer-term budget solutions that would cut the significant infrastructural overhead costs, micromanagement can still be an effective way of saving money. As students, getting rid of the abundance of paper flooding our folders is, at the very least, convenient.
And yet, this simple and instantly implementable plan is still with the other ideas on the budget drawing board. We cannot express how effortless and effective going paperless would be for UW-Madison. To put it in current terms, it's so easy a caveman could do it.
