A proposal introduced Friday, March 5 in Wisconsin to separate the state’s flagship school from the state has raised major questions about the meaning of public higher education.

The proposal enacted by University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin, is called the New Badger Partnership and could separate the state’s flagship school, University of Wisconsin-Madison, from the rest of the system.

“We recognize the serious short-term budget crisis and fundamental long-term economic problems facing the state of Wisconsin,” Martin said. “Wisconsin needs the job-creating capacity of a major research university.”

The chancellor said that without the flexibility that other major public research universities have — to set market-based tuition, provide more financial aid and compensate faculty separately from pay plans for other state agencies — UW-Madison would lose its competitive edge as a world-class university.

“UW-Madison faculty, staff and students have no interest in their school becoming a private university,” Martin said. “But we need a model that allows us to generate our own revenue, use it efficiently and serve Wisconsin.”

The University’s website states that students outside of Madison will have a reduced reliance on state taxes from the UW-Madison campus because the university would rely less on state resources and increasingly on private revenue.

Though officials at Binghamton University give their assurances that BU has no plans to go private, some are concerned that SUNY policies that reduce state funding to BU are the beginning of a trend that could unhook BU from SUNY in effect, if not in name.

James Dix, a chemistry professor and the interim chapter president of BU’s chapter of United University Professions, has come out against continued budget cuts.

“In a few years, what will be the difference between a Binghamton University and a private university?” he asked in the Feb. 17 issue of Connection UUP, the official publication of BU’s staff and facutly workers’ union. His answer: “nothing.”

According to BU spokeswoman Gail Glover, state support for SUNY has been cut by about 30 percent in the past three years, including the base operating budgets for the state-operated campuses, community colleges and hospitals. This figure includes failure of the state to cover mandatory increases.

The total cut over the last three years amounts to about $1.1 billion.

According to Glover, BU has no plans to privatize.

“Binghamton University has been part of the State University of New York system since 1950,” Glover said. “It is committed to being among the best public institutions in the nation.”

Brendan McQuade, a third-year graduate in the sociology department, said he is opposed to privatization at BU.

“Transferring publicly held assets to private hands hurts a vast majority of people and benefits economic elites,” McQuade said. “Privatization is a reactionary step backward that hurts the disadvantaged the most.”

McQuade said he is not sure if SUNY or BU will take steps in a similar direction.

“The SUNY empowerment plan proposed public-private partnerships,” McQuade said. “The talk of each campus having the ability to set tuition seems to point in the direction of privatization.” He was referring to proposed reforms introduced last year that could grant campuses increased freedom to enter into contracts on their own and to independently set tuition.

According to McQuade, administrators and politicians might see privatization as a way to keep the University running in the face of what he called “ever-declining” amounts of state funding.

“I think education, including higher education, is a human right that the state, as the political manifestation of the community, should provide for the long-term benefit of the community,” McQuade said.

— Sereena Karsou contributed to this report.