UW-Green Bay, other student government leaders write to Walker
Vanya Koepke and Tyler Sterr, president and vice president of the UW-Green Bay Student Government Association, have made public the text of a letter they wrote recently with other System colleagues to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The students weighed in on the side of UW System President Ray Cross’s budget request for the state’s public universities. The text is as follows:
Dear Governor Walker:
As student body presidents and leaders representing the twenty-six UW campuses, we ask that you strongly consider President Cross’ $95 million dollar request for the UW-System.
As you are already aware, the UW-System includes some 180,000 students and over 39,000 faculty and staff. The graduates of our system have numerous proud alumni who have contributed to our state economically in incredible ways. This trend of skilled, creative, and productive graduates continues.
As students we have truly benefited from the tuition freeze implemented by your administration. We are also appreciative of a balanced state budget and a healthy rainy day fund. At the same time, we have been losing talented faculty, staff, and potential students, in addition to overall support for the state UW-System. Politics aside, the universities within the system simply cannot maintain the high quality student experience at the same time state funding support declines and tuition remains frozen.
While we are not requesting state support of that decades ago, we are asking for your support for at least partial approval of President Cross’ request. Such support will benefit the students and faculty of all UW-System colleges that continue to bring much talent into the Wisconsin workforce.
Forward together,
