Letter to the editor

UW-Marathon County student sees flaws in Gov. Walker’s budget cuts

For a few years now, the government of Wisconsin has been discussing a potential move to have the budget cut for the UW System with a potential to close some of the two-year
campuses across the state.

Gov. Scott Walker has been talking recently of having an arena built with a price tag of upwards of $200 million, while also proposing a $300 million budget cut for the UW System, which includes both the two-year and four-year campuses.

As a current UW-Marathon County student, I strongly feel that a budget cut proposed by Walker of 13 percent from our campus would not help our education, but instead, it would hinder it. Secondly, I feel that doing so would unlikely lead to any UW System school to close. Therefore, I don’t fully understand why Walker and his office think it’s a wise idea to potentially close two-year campuses across the state.

We have not only paid to come to this university but we also came here to earn an education which we have worked our entire lives for, only to see it potentially be torn down in front of our very eyes.

Budget cuts do nothing for the student population; it only puts the weight of advantages for the “big wigs” in Madison, who are higher than the educational needs, standards, and choices of the entire UW System.

As I have learned, we are the future of this country, and closing campuses will not do anything positive for the future generations of not only Wisconsin, but also the entire country.

Walker’s 13 percent cut is an extremely high amount that no school in our system should need put up with. This was enabled by Act 10 of a 2011 law enacted by Walker that eliminated the collective bargaining agreement for most of Wisconsin public workers.

For all of you sports fans, you should know that the $200million that is being put aside is for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, who have not even been contenders for an NBA title in nearly 40 years. Because of this, there is no reason the Bucks need a new $200 million arena while $300 million may get cut from the UW System budget in the next two years.

On top of that mess, a whopping $928 million shortfall is expected for the state. This massive shortfall offers no help to the UW System whatsoever. UW System students, regardless of what university they attend in this state, deserve nothing short of an excellent education, whether it be at a four-year or two-year campus. One of our state senators, Senator Jon Erpenbach, said that cutting $300 million from the UW budget is essentially “taking an ax to one of the best things this state has to offer.”

In closing, what I ask of not only my fellow students at UW-Marathon County, but at each and every one of our UW campuses across the state, I ask that if this massive budget cut gets passed, that we all sign a petition to get this repealed. We as UW System students deserve not only an excellent education, but also the funding to do so. Please consider putting your signature on the online petition website at www.change.org/petition.

Charlie Havlovick
UW-Madison County student