University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn ""Biddy"" Martin met with The Daily Cardinal editors Friday to discuss the Madison Initiative, diversity on campus and other topics of interest to students.
The Madison Initiative will phase in a tuition increase over the next four years with the goal of improving the quality of the university's curriculum.
According to Martin, funding for financial aid from the Initiative is already in place, and she is now accepting proposals regarding additions to faculty and instructional staff in addition to enhancement of student services and undergraduate education.
""I'm eager to see what we get,"" she said. ""I don't want the funding to replicate things that should be funded by other units and organizations.""
Martin also emphasized the need for ""transformative"" proposals.
""These [proposals] need to be innovative ideas that will really affect the student body as a whole,"" she said.
According to Martin, the diversity of the student body and faculty continues to be a top priority.
Martin said she is committed to addressing the achievement gap.
""For too long ... universities have focused on ... how many students of minority descent could be recruited and enrolled and didn't worry nearly enough about what that meant once everyone was on campus,"" she said.
""The achievement gap is really unacceptable, and that's something everyone needs to be working on,"" Martin said.
Martin cited the Posse program, the First Wave program and the PEOPLE program as methods of addressing the gap.
She also emphasized the need for UW-Madison's ""Year of Humanities.""
""The University is so strong in the sciences, the humanities are relatively invisible,"" she said. ""I think we need to continue to elevate the arts and humanities.""
Martin said there's a ""passion for humanities and the arts which shouldn't be discouraged.""
She also spoke about her belief that university leaders understand the need for humanities scholarships, and are able to convince others of that fact.
When asked about stem cell research on campus, Martin expressed confidence that Professor James Thomson and others working on related projects at the University will continue to be able to compete with other schools' researchers despite a comparative lack of funding.
""We have the advantage of a long history of collaboration among scientists,"" she said.
Martin said she hopes to address many of these topics in the coming years through the Madison Initiative.
—Ryan Hebel and Charles Brace contributed to this report.
