Success starts at Fox!

Last night I got an e-mail from a Fox alumnus who is now living and working as an artist in Cambodia. (Do you know where Cambodia is???) In his message he was extremely effusive about what a great place Fox was for him. After Fox he went on to good arts schools and ended up working with the artist who created the Vietnam War Memorial ("The Wall")in Washington, D.C.

In essence he said to me what I have been trying to communicate with everyone -- if a student is serious about college and is willing to invest the effort, Fox and Fox professors and staff provide an experience that is superior to many larger residential campuses where an individual freshman student is just a face in a sea of faces in pit lecture halls. They provide an experience that is more typical of highly regarded private colleges.

It's wonderful to hear stories like this. They are really quite "routine" for me, but because we cost less and don't have all the creature comforts of some campuses, too many people don't realize what a great place Fox is academically. Too much of the "Rolls Royce mentality" exists -- it can only be a great product if you have to pay an arm and a leg for it. NOT!

Spring registration

Registration for Spring 2009 classes began on November 12, 2008. What’s keeping you from registering?

If it's the advanced tuition deposit (ATD), wait no longer. We have made a decision that under the right financial circumstances, we'll waive the ATD. Stop in the Student Services to see if you might qualify for an ATD waiver.

The reason for the ATD is that it ensures that students are serious about enrolling and not signing up for classes, filling up certain sections (excluding others from registering for that class) , and then changing their minds.

If your reason is not the ATD tell me why you are waiting.

College affordability

A national study has just hit the media waves that grades 49 of 50 states as an "F" in college affordability. Wisconsin got an "F." I've been called by local radio to comment on the issue of affordability. All I can offer is that among the UW campuses we are the most affordable. I really lament the cost of going to colleges today relative to my time. In the good old days, Wisconsin invested more in its colleges students. That is, the state paid for a higher proportion of my education than it's paying for today's students.

The youth of America turned out in force in the last Presidential election. Will the same happen with more local issues? Will today's college students express to the state legislature the need to invest in them like it did in me in 1966?