Chancellor's parting words: Unleash UW talent, invest in educators to compete globally

Editor's note: This column by UW-River Falls Chancellor Don Betz is based on the farewell comments he delivered to the UW System Board of Regents in Milwaukee in June. Reprinted with the permission of the River Falls Journal.

As I leave the UW System after three years, I have been asked to offer a few brief observations and suggestions.

1. I would urge the state and the people of Wisconsin to stop viewing and treating the UW System as just another state agency. It is not.

It is not corrections, nor roads, nor the Department of Natural Resources. Rather, it is a prime engine for the cultural, civic and economic development for the state in this era of rapid change and challenge.

I suggest that the state decouple the UW system from the full force of the highly restrictive and often discouraging labyrinth of controls, regulations and oversight. It is time to re-evaluate, reposition, reframe and revitalize.

UW and all of public education is one of the critical tools available to Wisconsin and to its people to meet the challenge of seismic change before us.

2. Give UW leaders the latitude to lead. Unleash the talent that you have effectively attracted and gathered in the higher education system. Trust the leaders you select and openly encourage their creativity and innovation.

3. In doing so, encourage and reward collaboration between and among the UW institutions, the UW colleges, tech colleges, local government, nonprofits and the private sector.

Wisconsin could become distinguished and recognized as THE place to be in times of challenge because here in Wisconsin "collaboration is a state of mind."

We must proceed in this way as we learn each day that to truly serve the people and fulfill our responsibilities to the state and to our students, we can't do this alone.

Richard Longworth, in his recent work, "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism," pertinently reminds us of the forces continuing to impact this region.

We must purposefully build the future and one of the anchors is higher education available to a broader base of the population.

4. Be persistent advocates for the UW institutions with the media, Legislature, public and state agencies. My colleagues and their institutions will match your resolve.

We would like you to wake up each day considering in what ways you can uniquely and effectively advance our capacities to impact lives and change the state's future.

5. We have been doing more with less for too long with too few minds, hands and hearts to fulfill our missions. We cannot trim and cut and lapse our way to greatness.

We must take care of the people who make our campuses work. There are moments when these loyal and dedicated team players sense a disconnect between the work they do, and the lives they lead and the awareness, appreciation and support demonstrated by the state, the Legislature.

Persistently invest in faculty, staff and leadership. Please remember that staff is critical to faculty being able to realize the fullest expression of their talents. Invest in campus leadership. It is more vital to university and state success than most people understand.

We are significantly under resourced. Let's aspire to compensation and incentive that leap far beyond the "95 percent of our peer institution averages."

We are not average. None of us came to the UW system perceiving it as 95 percent of the average of other state systems of higher education.

Salaries at almost every level in our institutions are not competitive and not reflective of the talent serving on our campuses.

Fareed Zakaria, in his latest work, "The Post American World," speaks of the "rise of the rest." This observation is relevant to the United States in its global relations as well as to Wisconsin and the UW System.

There are both competition and opportunity beyond Wisconsin and beyond our shores. Commit to making the UW System the national leader in encouraging global literacy and global engagement.

The Wisconsin Idea was created to serve the people of this state, but it actually is the call to serve people ... wherever they are, as surely as the U.S. Declaration of Independence speaks to the aspirations of people everywhere. This is a universal message and it emanates for Wisconsin.

In the UW system I believe that the values and instincts are solid and enduring, but that execution remains the continuing challenge, especially in the increasingly dynamic and challenging global environment.

Stephen Covey counseled us some time ago to "begin with the end in mind." I did not come to River Falls with the intention of leaving. But, as Humphrey Bogart immortalized in Casablanca, Fate played its hand.

I leave UW-River Falls, the UW System and Wisconsin older, more experienced, hopefully a bit wiser and more able to effectively serve, thanks in part to you and the confidence you expressed in me.

For all your encouragement, counsel and friendship, I am truly grateful.

Don Betz is the outgoing chancellor at UW-River Falls.