WisPolitics Budget Blog

UW-Madison, where even Willy Wonka would stand in disbelief that so much money could be spent turning dreams into reality. (story)

After five years of work and roughly $26 million, a News 3 investigation finds only rising costs,major technical glitches and other problems -- and no launch date in sight. There's no 'go live' date, said Don Mash, who also insists the project is not off track. When News 3's Linda Eggert asked him if the project is on hold, he said, Well, it is, and it isn't.

I am having a Fast Times at Ridgemont High deja moment; Well, which is it gonna be, Mash, is he gonna sh*#, or is he gonna kill us?

The report includes budget estimates that put the total project cost between $55 million and $62 million in three to four years with an estimated budget shortfall between $21 million and $28 million.

Remember that, incoming freshmen. When tuition increases cut into beer funds, don't even try to blame Karl Rove for this one.

Mash said it's impossible to estimate costs now due to all the unknown, which News 3 finds includes exploring a switch to another software company -- Peoplesoft -- just in case Lawson doesn't work out. Is there a chance that we might say, you know, maybe we do need to look at another vendor? Mash said. I guess that's a possibility.

So, as a graduate from an east coast private university, do I understand this -- public universities offer multiple choice exams, where more than one answer is correct for each question, thereby insuring no answer is incorrect?

Dang, wish I had attended UW-Madison. But the tuition increases were just too much.