Before moving on, I have to thank Kelly Meyerhofer for the excellent piece and combing through admission data for everyone to see. These details can be hard to find I appreciate the work that goes into finding this and brining it to light.
UW-Madison is slowly turning itself into a tourist attraction with a diploma attached. In 2015, the university uncapped out-of-state applicants to offset budget pressures. Bring in more students who pay higher tuition and the books balance. A decade later the foreign and out-of-state numbers keep climbing and the number of Wisconsin kids in the freshman class barely budges. The university has spent years meeting the bare minimum of Wisconsin students while Wisconsin taxpayers still fund the place.
Out-of-state tuition is several times what a Wisconsin kid pays. International students pay even more. On paper it looks like smart business, but this is not sustainable model for the long-term success of the univeristy.
The Wisconsin share of the freshman class stays roughly the same year after year. The growth is coming from everywhere else. The university has said this is about global excellence and research prestige and by all means, we want the best universities for Wisconsinites. However, this strategy of increasingly giving more and more admissions to everyone, but Wisconsinites is not sustainable.
UW-Madison has become a four-year layover for kids from other states and other countries. They come, they take the degree, and they go home. No future investments or long term benefits for Wisconsin, just short term budget holes covered for the University. Wisconsinites are the opposite. They live here; they play here; and a lot of them raise their families here. They are the ones who will still be paying taxes, starting businesses, and filling the classrooms of the next generation. Shocking development, but people who already live in Wisconsin want to stay in Wisconsin.
UW-Madison needs a long-term plan if it wants to have long term success by investing in the people who will actually stick around. That is brain drain in reverse. We educate the ones who leave and ration spots for the ones who stay.
I don’t think we are asking for a lot from UW-Madison and these students are not asking for a handout. They are asking for the same opportunities their parents had and already paid for. Instead Madison seems to be treating them like an afterthought while it markets itself to families who will never pay another dime in Wisconsin taxes. If UW-Madison wants a future, it should start thinking past the next ranking cycle. A university that educates people who leave is subsidizing its own eventual decline.
