Dive Brief:
- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed adding $100 million to the state’s higher education budget in his upcoming two-year budget, after $250 million in cuts in the last two-year budget.
- In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Lee Gardner, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the support of the business community in the legislature has been paramount.
- Blank said the institution also “put up billboards in every one of the 72 counties that highlighted an alum that lives and works in that county, and that has generated a lot of earned media”.
Dive Insight:
Wisconsin’s strategy is a testament to the importance of institutional storytelling and advocacy in the legislature. Engaging key stakeholders — from the business community to faculty to students and alumni — and arming them with the right narrative to take to the state house can be a powerful means of garnering support for the institution. Not only that, but external stakeholders can often say things which campus administrators may be limited in saying.
It is important to build those relationships with external stakeholders and the surrounding university community before they are needed. If an institution can provide and demonstrate tangible value to the community by way of increased public-private partnerships and community events, it will be an easy sell when it is time to activate that same community to advocate on the institution’s behalf.