Government Relations

Washington Wire

February 2004

Washington Wire Archive | Search Washington Wire

In This Edition

System News

President Lyall announces plans to retire

University of Wisconsin System President Katharine C. Lyall announced her retirement at a press conference in Madison on Feb. 4, marking the end of one of the longest and most productive presidencies in the history of the UW System. Lyall indicated she would stay until her replacement arrives or until Sept. 1, at the latest.

In a prepared statement, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin praised Lyall’s service to the UW System. “As president of the UW System for the past twelve years, Katharine Lyall has overseen tremendous growth under often trying financial and political circumstances," Baldwin said. "Through it all, she has led with grace, humor, intelligence and an unswerving commitment to education and the Wisconsin Idea."

Congressman Ron Kind, a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce, said Lyall's departure will mean a great loss for the university. "Under her leadership, the UW System has expanded educational opportunities, excelled in its service to students and continues to serve as a national paradigm for excellence in higher education," Kind said.

A search committee will be appointed by Board of Regents President Toby Marcovich with a goal of naming a new president by June 2004.

* UW System University Relations has developed a web page containing news, information and statements related to President Lyall’s announcement.

Financial aid vital for student access to UW System

The UW System's most recent data on financial assistance to UW System students shows that financial aid plays an important role in providing access to higher education.

The research brief, titled “UW System Student Financial Aid:  2002-03 Update,” shows that in 2002-03, more than 94,000 UW System undergraduate and graduate students received nearly $623 million through a combination of both need-based and non-need-based financial aid.  Of that amount, $502.7 million came from federal sources -- $56.5 million above 2001-02 levels.

Almost five of every six, or 81 percent, financial aid dollars to UW students were provided or underwritten through a federal program. Aid from state sources represented less than one-tenth of all aid. Institutional aid, made up primarily of scholarships funded through sources such as private donations to UW institutions, accounted for 6 percent of the aid received by UW students. 

Under President Bush's FY05 budget proposal, the maximum Pell Grant would remain at $4,050. In 2002-03, the Pell Grant program provided a total of $66.5 million to 28,180 of the UW System’s most financially needy students.  The average Pell Grant award was $2,358, which covers approximately 64 percent of tuition and fees (20 percentage points fewer than it covered a decade ago).  When tuition and fee increases for 2003-04 and 2004-05 are factored in, the Pell Grant will cover much less.  Student budgets include things such as room and board, books, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses, in addition to tuition and fees. When these items are considered, the average Pell Grant only picks up 21 percent of the total student’s budget.

The UW System is committed to providing access to all eligible students, regardless of income. Pell Grants are the cornerstone  of federal need-based aid, and are vital to ensuring students from low-income families the opportunity to go to college. The UW System hopes Congress will increase the federal investment in the Pell Grant program.

* The UW System Board of Regents heard this report at its February meeting. A full news summary of the two-day meeting is available on the UW System News and Events website.

Grant to further work of Academic ADL Co-Lab

The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab, a joint venture of the UW System and the Wisconsin Technical College System, has been awarded a grant to continue its work on learning object repositories.

Repositories are a major area of research in advanced distributed learning, and Co-Lab officials say the $58,000 grant, from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will help keep the UW at the forefront of this important initiative.

UW System wins grant to improve teacher quality

A recent grant will allow the University of Wisconsin System to expand its work toward improving the quality of teachers in Wisconsin and across the nation.

The UW System is one of seven universities nationally to receive a Teacher Quality Initiative grant from the State Higher Education Executive Officers, an association of chief executives who serve statewide higher education governing boards. The grant will assist UW campuses as they study how the expertise from multiple disciplines could strengthen the education of both university-prepared teachers and their K-12 students.

The teacher quality grant complements other UW System priorities, including the PK-16 Leadership Council, a focus on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the use of technology.

* Read a full news release.

Congressional Update

Senate passes Omnibus bill

The Senate last month passed the Fiscal Year 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Conference Report by a vote of 65-28.  The House of Representatives passed the same bill in December by a vote of 242-176. It encompasses the budgets of seven government agencies for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

In a victory for Wisconsin, the bill would prevent the U.S. Education Department from making a proposed change in the formula that the government uses to calculate a student’s need for financial aid.  Budget officials at UW System have estimated that the changes would have resulted in about 1,300 fewer Pell Grant recipients in the UW System – an approximately 5 percent decrease from the UW's current 26,000 recipients – and awards to students eligible to receive a Pell Grant would decrease, on average, by $100. Together, the lower awards and fewer recipients would amount to a loss of approximately $3 million in federal Pell Grant dollars for University of Wisconsin System students.

The budget includes an appropriation of nearly $28 billion for the National Institutes of Health, an increase of $1 billion, or 3.7 percent, over the previous year; and $5.6 billion was appropriated for the National Science Foundation, an increase of about $300 million, or 6 percent. 

The Pell Grant maximum remains frozen at $4,050. The bill calls for increased federal spending on several other student aid programs, including the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant Program, TRIO programs for disadvantaged students, and Gear Up, which helps prepare middle-school students from low-income families for college. All of these programs directly benefit students of the UW System.

Selected funding items specific to UW institutions include:

President Bush releases proposed FY05 budget

President Bush released his proposed FY05 budget on Feb. 2. The budget would provide an increase in overall discretionary spending of about 4 percent, but the bulk of the spending growth would be in defense (up by 7 percent) and homeland security (up by 9.7 percent). Domestic discretionary spending – where most civilian research and higher education programs are supported – would be held to an overall increase of about 0.5 percent, or less than the rate of inflation.

Under the President’s proposal, the maximum Pell Grant would remain at $4,050 for the third year in a row. While the President requests $12.8 billion for the Pell Grant program (the amount the Education Department estimates is needed to fund that maximum award), $3.7 billion of that amount will be needed to pay prior-year shortfalls.

Further, the President’s FY05 budget request flat-funds the Supplemental Education Opportunities Grant (SEOG) and College Work Study (CWS) at their 2004 levels. It would do the same for the TRIO  and Gear Up programs. Of particular concern to UW comprehensive campuses is that the budget proposes a cut from $138 million to $32 million for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

The President's request also includes $33 million for a pilot program that would reward low-income students who take specific college preparatory courses in high school with an additional $1,000 in Pell Grants for their first year of college. Students eligible to receive those funds must take part in State Scholars programs, which currently operate in 14 states, but not in Wisconsin. The president’s budget includes an additional $12 million to encourage more states to start those programs.

Funding for the National Institutes of Health would increase by 2.7 percent to $28.6 billion; funding for the National Science Foundation would increase by 3 percent, to $5.7 billion.

Congressional Outlook 2004

Though there are only about 40 full legislative days left this year since most of the time will be spent campaiging for the November elections, there is an ambitious education policy agenda for the second session of the 108 th Congress.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 will expire on Sept. 30. This impending expiration requires that the 108th Congress reauthorize the HEA. The vast majority of need-based student financial aid programs, as well as specific academic programs, are contained in the act. House Education and Workforce Chairman John Boehner has indicated plans to move the bill through committee by the April congressional recess.

Once HEA is completed, the committee will move on to reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, which governs career and technical education,  and the Child Nutrition Act, which funds the school lunch and breakfast programs in elementary and secondary schools.

Last year, the House passed Head Start reauthorization (H.R. 2210).  The Senate has yet to act on the legislation, so a House-Senate conference report is also possible this year.

Building Partnerships

Innovative paper technology center at UW-GreenBay will help state, paper industry

GREEN BAY – A new paper technology transfer center at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is an innovative project that will benefit the state and regional economy, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard says.

Shepard joined U.S. Rep. Mark Green, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and Wisconsin Paper Council President Pat Schillinger at a news conference Monday, Feb. 2, at UW-Green Bay to announce details about the center.

The center is designed to be a world-class research facility that will serve as home to leading paper scientists who will be encouraged to develop patentable technologies that can be transferred from the laboratory to the marketplace.

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard and Congressman Mark Green (seated) announce that an innovative paper technology center will be located in Green Bay.
UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard and Congressman Mark Green (seated) announce that an innovative paper technology center will be located in Green Bay.

Green, R-Green Bay, successfully secured $500,000 in federal funding for the institution in an appropriations bill last year. President Bush signed the measure into law just over a week ago.

“I want to thank Congressman Green for his leadership in securing funding to plan this important project,” Shepard said. “As Green Bay’s University of Wisconsin, we are pleased to be involved in a partnership that will strengthen a region and a sector of the economy that are vital to all of Wisconsin.”

The chancellor said the center is a good example of UW-Green Bay’s campuswide theme of “Connecting learning to life.” He said it will help create the types of jobs that may not even exist today.

Green said Wisconsin has to stay on the “cutting edge” of paper technology if the state expects to keep jobs in the important paper industry. “With this seed money, we’re setting the stage for Wisconsin to become a world technology leader – and laying the groundwork for a brighter economic picture for years to come,” he said.

The center’s concept is similar to technology development programs at UW-Madison where scientists work to generate new technologies which are then transferred to the private sector.

Chancellor Shepard said he will work closely with Mayor Schmitt in an effort to locate the center in downtown Green Bay. The partnership will help strengthen the city’s downtown, they said.

The center will also provide opportunities for UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point to conduct collaborative research toward strengthening this important source of Wisconsin jobs.

--Contributed by Scott Hildebrand, director of marketing and university communication, UW-GreenBay.

Questions or Comments?

E-mail washingtonwire@uwsa.edu or contact Kris Andrews, Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations, UW System.

University of Wisconsin System: http://www.wisconsin.edu
Washington Wire: http://www.uwsa.edu/execvp/govrel/wwire/index.htm

Washington Wire Archive | Search Washington Wire