Great People

Faculty and staff lead by example with scholarship gifts.

When it comes to students who attend UW-Madison, “the best and brightest should be our only standard — not the best, brightest, and most able to afford,” says Dale Burke, the UW’s assistant chief of police and co-chair for the Great People Faculty Staff Scholarship Initiative.

“This initiative has a goal,” he adds, “and that is that no one’s dream of a quality education at UW-Madison goes unrealized for want of money.”

The scholarship initiative augments the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, which was approved last May by the board of regents and has as one of its main planks increased private support for financial aid. Gift funds will complement a percentage of revenue from increased tuition to assist students from lower financial brackets.

UW faculty and staff anticipated the call for such gifts, taking the lead to respond and hoping that alumni and friends will follow. The scholarship initiative began with a resolution from the Faculty Senate, followed by Academic Staff Assembly and classified staff approval. Now employees are making peer-to-peer appeals for gifts to support undergraduates. The UW Foundation is matching gifts for student support, providing a one-to-one match for campuswide, unrestricted scholarships, and one-to-two for endowment-level college or school scholarships.

So far, the effort has raised more than $1.9 million, including a three-month period at the end of 2008 during which the UW Credit Union matched its members’ gifts.

For more information on how you can help UW-Madison, visit the UW Foundation Web site or call (608) 263-4545.

Published in the Fall 2009 issue