Professor Bill Tracy, president of PROFS, and Jack O’Meara, legislative representative for PROFS, recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby on behalf of UW-Madison faculty. They met with representatives from Wisconsin’s entire congressional delegation and had meetings with Senator Herb Kohl and Representative Tammy Baldwin.
Tracy and O’Meara discussed the importance of federal funding for research and education at UW-Madison — $879 million this year. They also expressed concern over plans that might unreasonably reward universities for not increasing tuition.
Other facts they shared:
- UW Madison is one of the top 20 universities in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
- UW-Madison ranks among the top three American universities in securing science and engineering research money.
- UW-Madison’s economic impact is $12.4 billion annually, according to a report by NorthStar Economics, Inc.
- UW-Madison faculty secure, on average, $500,000 in outside research funding annually.
- Top sources of federal research funds include National Institutes of Health; National Science Foundation; NASA; and the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Defense, Education, and Agriculture.