An agenda for the 21st century
By Daniel Alesch, Ph.D.
This is an analysis of what the University of Wisconsin must become, as Wisconsin enters the next century and the University enters its second quarter century. Universities did well the past three decades without much thought about how social and economic changes would affect them. Those days are over. There have been massive, fundamental, and irrevocable changes during the past few years – in what we do for a living, where we live, and what our families are like. More changes are on the way. They demand new thinking about what the University should be.
Too many professors and administrators think everything would be better at the University if they just had more money and less outside interference. They are wrong. Wisconsin needs the University of Wisconsin System more than ever before, but the University must change what it does and how it does it.
