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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/27/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
April 13, 2004 Lyall stops at UWGB to say good-bye Retiring UW system president asks university community for input in search for her replacement By Anna Krejci The audience that filled the 1965 Room in the University Union —
consisting of faculty, students and members of the Chancellor's Council
of Trustees, the Founder's Association and the Alumni Association —
gave Lyall a wide range of feedback to relay to the new president.
Paul Jadin, president of the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, said he
wants the new president to be well-acquainted with the university's Paper
Sciences Technology Transfer Center recently established with funding
from Congress. The center, intended to attract experts in paper innovation
and manufacturing, will have the ability to strengthen the local economy,
Jadin said.
Lyall responded to an audience member's concern about increasing diversity
on campuses and analyzing the UW System's tactics in achieving the goal.
Lyall referred to Plan 2008, a UW System plan established to increase
diversity on campus. She said systemwide, 9 percent of the student body
is comprised of minority students compared with the state's minority population
of 13 percent. She said the gap between those two numbers must be closed.
"It is a very important piece of unfinished business," Lyall said.
The mix of out-of-state and in-state residents is another aspect of
creating diverse student bodies, and it generates money for the universities.
Raising the price of tuition for out-of-state students resulted in a
decrease in the number of out-of-state students attending Wisconsin universities
and a $5 million loss in out-of-state tuition revenue, according to Lyall.
The $5 million would have subsidized the education for 1,000 Wisconsin
residents because out-of-state residents pay more than the cost of their
education. Out-of-state students are valuable for the finances they bring
to the system, but also for the mix they contribute to campuses, Lyall
said.
Another individual made the case that the new president should be an
advocate for university funding before the state's legislators and another
said he feared that a constitutional limit on state-level spending in
Wisconsin would reduce state funding for universities.
As a model, Wisconsin legislators have studied a 1992 Colorado amendment
that limits state-level spending. In Colorado, 8 percent of the state's
university system budget is from state money and it is predicted it will
have none of the state's budget in 2007, Lyall said.
Lyall said she hopes legislators do not "doom us to privatization" with
a constitutional limit on spending.
She also promoted a student's bill of rights.
Such a bill of rights would include ensuring all qualified Wisconsin
students a place in a state university, making education affordable and
enhancing the quality of a Wisconsin education.
Graduates of state schools have inherited an average debt of $16,000,
she said. According to the UW System Web site, enrollments increased by
7,000 students since 1991 while the number of faculty positions has declined
by 700. The remaining faculty and staff will have no pay increases until
next year's increase of 1 percent, she said.
Lyall fielded a concern that the new president run an administration
that encourages universities to differentiate themselves from other state
universities. "I think one of the strengths of the University of Wisconsin
system is we're not cookie cutters," she said.
Later, she added, "It's the local support, local roots and local flavor
that makes it (the university) important to you and the community."
Reflecting on how the UWGB campus has extended itself to the community,
Lyall highlighted the university's cooperation in designing a joint social
work program with UW-Oshkosh, its partnership with St. Norbert College
in bringing international visitors to the schools and the establishment
of the Paper Sciences Technology Transfer Center for researching innovative
ways to use and manufacture paper while establishing patents.
Lyall has served as UW System president since 1991. She plans to serve
as president until the end of the academic year. Thursday's visit to UWGB,
one of the state's 15 schools of post-secondary education, preceded a
visit to the UW Center in Manitowoc.
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