{"id":10110,"date":"2026-04-16T13:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=10110"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:32:53","slug":"profs-forum-what-is-the-path-forward-for-public-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=10110","title":{"rendered":"PROFS Forum: What is the Path Forward for Public Higher Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PROFS will host a campus forum on how public higher education can chart a path forward after many years of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2025\/10\/15\/growing-share-of-americans-say-the-us-higher-education-system-is-headed-in-the-wrong-direction\/\">declining public opinion<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acenet.edu\/Documents\/Trump-EO-Summary.pdf\">political attacks and interference<\/a>, and a call to refocus on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gouconnect.com\/podcast-episode\/proving-the-value-of-a-liberal-arts-education-in-the-age-of-ai\/\">liberal arts curriculum<\/a> in light of the AI boom.<\/p>\n<p>The forum will be held at noon, Wednesday, May 6 in the Wisconsin Idea Room (Room 159) in the Education Building, <a href=\"https:\/\/map.wisc.edu\/s\/vyzqyvvx\">1000 Bascom Mall<\/a>. Our panel has experience in higher education, politics, and marketing communications:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/2025\/legislators\/assembly\/2896\">State Representative Angela Stroud<\/a> (D-Ashland), former Northland College professor<br \/>\n\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/greg-summers-4b00819b\/\">Greg Summers<\/a>, Senior Advisor, BVK Agency and Emeritus Provost,<br \/>\nUW-Stevens Point<br \/>\n\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/raymond-taffora-3a32667\/\">Raymond Taffora<\/a>, Emeritus Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs, UW-Madison, former Wisconsin Deputy Attorney General and Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Tommy Thompson<\/p>\n<p>PROFS President Michael Bernard-Donals will moderate.<\/p>\n<p>The forum is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ead-preview\"><div class=\"ead-document\" style=\"position: relative;padding-top: 90%;\"><div class=\"ead-iframe-wrapper\"><iframe src=\"\/\/docs.google.com\/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fprofs.wisc.edu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2026%2F04%2F2026-spring-forum-poster-with-links-2.pdf&amp;embedded=true&amp;hl=en\" title=\"Embedded Document\" class=\"ead-iframe\" style=\"width: 100%;height: 100%;border: none;position: absolute;left: 0;top: 0;visibility: hidden;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-document-loading\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0;top:0;z-index:10;\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-main\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/loading.svg\" width=\"55\" height=\"55\" alt=\"Loader\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Loading...<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-foot\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-loading-foot-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/EAD-logo.svg\" alt=\"EAD Logo\" width=\"36\" height=\"23\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Taking too long?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ead-document-btn ead-reload-btn\" role=\"button\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/reload.svg\" alt=\"Reload\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\"\/> Reload document\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>|<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-spring-forum-poster-with-links-2.pdf\" class=\"ead-document-btn\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/plugins\/embed-any-document\/images\/open.svg\" alt=\"Open\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\"\/> Open in new tab\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PROFS will host a campus forum on how public higher education can chart a path forward after many years of declining public opinion, political attacks and interference, and a call to refocus on a liberal arts curriculum in light of&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/?p=10110\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10,19,13],"tags":[58,225],"class_list":["post-10110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-profs","category-the-national-context","category-the-state","category-uw","tag-public-higher-education","tag-public-opinion","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10115,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110\/revisions\/10115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profs.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}