By Brian Wagenaar (wagebr21@gmail.com)
As a proud Phoenix alumnus, I was disheartened to hear UWGB is considering cutting several majors, announced by UWGB’s leadership on Nov. 7.
The university’s Theater & Dance and Economics programs may be reduced to minors, and Environmental Policy and Planning — the program I graduated with back in 2017 — could be scrapped altogether. The proposed cuts could also mean dropping minors in International Environmental Studies, Physics, and Geography.
UWGB Chancellor Dr. Michael Alexander maintains that no staff or faculty will be reduced should the university proceed with the cuts (he notes that some courses would still be offered in those disciplines, and professors may be redirected to other programs), which are slated for review and a prospective decision in February.
This announcement comes on the heels of reports that UWGB is bucking the broad trend of recent declines in higher education enrollment, surpassing 10,000 students across the university’s four campuses — up more than 7 percent from last year, more than any school in the UW-System.
Yet despite this recent recruiting success, UWGB still faces an annual deficit over $2 million — to be partially offset by a planned 4.5 percent tuition increase — and laid off nine staff back in October to help control costs.
But grasping for quick cuts likely won’t alleviate the underlying budgetary issues that many public colleges face. For decades, public investment in higher education has declined — forcing students to become long-term debtors and demanding that universities make a series of incredibly tough choices concerning the allocation of limited resources.
These decisions, when they shutter and hobble academic programs, could undermine a core mission of the university: Training well-rounded citizens who can think deeply and critically, solve complex problems, and make positive contributions to society.
As a proud alumnus of the Environmental Policy and Planning program, I can personally attest to the increasing importance of graduates who possess an intimate understanding of environmental topics, particularly as climate change intrudes into every aspect of our lives — from our shared infrastructure to public health and severe weather.
It’s time for the UWGB community to stand up and support the university’s broad array of courses and majors — including programs in environmental studies that call back to the university’s early days when it was first christened as “Eco-U.”
“In the fall of 1969, reporters from the Associated Press, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Harper’s and Innovation magazine all trumpeted the new UW-Green Bay as a national model for innovative, environmentally focused higher education,” writes Christopher Sampson in a 2015 piece commemorating UWGB’s 50th anniversary.
Maintaining this strong environmental legacy that UWGB takes pride in means protecting the Environmental Policy & Planning degree and continuing to train the next generation of environmental leaders.
As much as feasible, UWGB should resist the trend that has prompted many public universities (including Western Colorado University, where I received my master’s, which recently spent $80 million of donor money on a new engineering and computer science school while cutting funds from campus art, music, and sociology programs) to go all in on business, computer science, engineering, and technology programs to the detriment of other disciplines.
The STEM fields, while undoubtedly critical for the future and worthy of public investment, must be accompanied by a broad understanding of history, philosophy, art, economics, and other subjects that will enable future community leaders to make well-considered, ethical, and humanistic decisions with our rapidly progressing technologies.
UWGB should aim to continue offering a well-rounded suite of majors and minors in keeping with its stated mission of being a “comprehensive university” that serves the communities of northeast Wisconsin and beyond.
University decision-makers need to hear from students, alumni, and the greater Green Bay community that cutting programs will not pave the road to long-term sustainability and prosperity.
I encourage readers to make their voices heard, advocating for Dr. Michael Alexander and Dr. Kate Burns, the university’s chancellor, and provost, respectively, as well as the Board of Regents and Faculty Senate, to retain the imperiled programs and seek an alternative option to balance the budgets.
Finally, we must lobby our state legislators to stop the systemic fiscal bleeding that is endangering the future of public college in Wisconsin, perhaps best exemplified in recent times by UW-Oskhosh laying off more than 140 employees back in October.
A strong University of Wisconsin system is the bedrock for a strong future in the Badger State.
Safeguarding that future means rejecting cuts to vital arts, social science, and environmental programs that graduate future Phoenix leaders — and advocating for strong, continued investment in our beloved UWGB.
