Faculty will pitch in to increase need-based scholarships

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Faculty Senate approved a resolution on March 3 that will encourage faculty to be frontline contributors to the goal of expanding access to low-income students.

With the resolution’s passage, the senate will now form a faculty steering committee to work with the UW Foundation to establish a fund for need-based scholarships, develop lead gifts and promote the effort at the department levels. Faculty will lead this campaign, with administrative support from the foundation, for a period of a year to 18 months.

Robert Mathieu, chair of the University Committee and professor of astronomy, says that access and affordability emerged as top concerns in a fall 2006 survey of UW–Madison faculty, and this campaign is a way to make a direct difference. "We feel very strongly that faculty should be among the leaders on this issue," Mathieu says. "This is an example of shared governance leadership at its best."

Mathieu emphasized that faculty lead involvement could have a leveraging effect that would trigger greater support. Such an effect has already started with the foundation, which will match unrestricted faculty donations dollar-for-dollar. The Academic Staff Executive Committee will also introduce a resolution this spring to lead a similar campaign among the academic staff.

"What we are shooting for is a high percentage of participation," Mathieu says. "That inspiration will leverage a broader range of participation off campus."

The campaign does not have a monetary goal. But, for perspective, Chancellor John Wiley referred to the university’s annual Partners in Giving pledge drive that supports nonprofit causes throughout Wisconsin. Faculty and staff gave $1.5 million to that fund in 2007.

If faculty were to reach that same plateau in the campaign, combined with the foundation matching funds, the effort would yield a $3 million endowment that could support 30 $5,000 need-based scholarships each year.

Wiley says the resolution will send a strong message about the university’s larger fundraising priorities. "In fundraising, you first have to lay out the need, and then people will ask, ‘How can I help?’ (Faculty) are in absolutely the best position to know what our priorities are and can make the best case for supporting the university," he adds.

Another impetus for the campaign was a spring 2005 Faculty Senate report that outlined a variety of forces conspiring against access to UW–Madison for low-income students, including rising tuition rates, limits to freshman class sizes and an inadequate level of state and federal financial aid. The report warned that fewer students from low-income families were even attempting to gain entry to UW–Madison because cost appeared to be too great an obstacle.

The senate’s Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, which produced the report, examined family income reports from students who took the ACT standardized test. In 1996, the number of students who took the test in the lowest family income quintile was 9.1 percent, compared to 30.5 percent in the highest income quintile. By 2002, the numbers were 6.6 percent from the lowest quintile and 34.2 percent in the highest, suggesting a growing low-income access problem.

That report strongly recommended, among other things, the creation of new funding streams for need-based aid and development of criteria to target the highest-need students in Wisconsin.

The senate debated a number of issues before overwhelmingly approving the measure, including questions about the scope of the campaign, how it would be administered and how many scholarships could be realistically supported.

Ann Hoyt, a professor of consumer science and University Committee member, emphasized that the scholarships will only apply to students who qualify for admission to the university and, due to family income, could not otherwise afford coming here.

Adds Mathieu: "(The campaign) is not going to solve the problem, but we want to give hope to parents and students and inspire our alumni who care deeply about access to this great university."