By james art (WLUK) — UW-Madison may no longer be part of the UW-System.
It was one of 21 proposals presented at a meeting of the Legislative Studies Committee on Thursday.
The proposal includes creating a separate board of regents to oversee Madison and another for the other 12 universities.
“Given the disruption that’s happening in higher education today, not only demographically, but also some of the overlapping issues with technical colleges, that having a board that can only focus on the overarching knowledge is actually more important to addressing these existential issues,” said Robert Venable, a member of the research committee and president and CEO of Miami Corporation Management. “Madison is not facing existential issues.”
This isn’t the first time a UW-Madison split has been proposed. Back in 2011, Gov. Scott Walker floated the idea, but it went nowhere.
With the possibility back on the table, Milwaukee’s 7th District Sen. Chris Larson said more input is needed.
“I wish we had done more to elicit a public response, have an open mic and actually have students,” he said. “I feel that this voice has not been in this room.”
The commission has been debating potential changes to the system for months.
Another suggestion made was a system-wide review of programs and potential campus specialization.
“I’m sure there are some inefficiencies in such a large system,” said Scott Bitol, another member of the study committee. “That would be a signal to say, let’s try to have different and excellent programs where they should live, and encourage and encourage more collaboration.”
Betsy Morgan, chancellor at UW-La Crosse, says it’s more complicated than that.
“Will you drive 45 minutes to take a class? Even if it’s only 45 minutes. How do parents feel about this?
Morgan continued, “We’re not really designed as a system to make joint degrees work well. Our systems start at different times, it should be absolutely seamless for the student, right? I pay tuition and then I can take a class at Point or Oshkosh or wherever.”
The committee votes on which proposals deserve more discussion. The results will be published by the Joint Legislative Council.