In this very special episode, I rejoin my bestie Cindy Cheng alongside our esteemed colleague Armando Ibarra, to talk about our own slice of the world, the University of Wisconsin, Madison (or the UW as it’s often affectionally called). Depending on what poll you look at, UW Madison is either the 26th or 10th highest ranked public university in the world. Founded in 1848, the university is one of the nation’s oldest land-grant institutions, supported directly by the federal government as a public institution serving the people of Wisconsin and the Midwest more broadly. In any given year we teach a total of over fifty-thousand students with a combined faculty and staff of over twenty-seven thousand personnel. Despite being the most prestigious university of the state, we accept 61% of our Wisconsin-based applicants, which reflects our deep commitment to educating as many state residents as possible; compare that to the acceptance rates of UCLA and UC Berkeley, which respectively land at 9 and 11%, reflecting an increasing move toward public schools as elite universities. UW Madison is driven by a core mission called “The Wisconsin Idea,” a phrase said to be coined by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904, remembered by his famous quote, “I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every family in the state.” The Wisconsin Idea website captures the spirit of this charge simply: “One of the longest and deepest traditions surrounding the University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Idea signifies a general principle: that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom.” In this episode, we discuss the legacy of UW Madison's extraordinary work on behalf of the public good of Wisconsin and the toll that recent attacks on higher education have taken on the school's outreach efforts.