Legislative panel proposes severing UW-Madison from larger UW system
The state Legislature should consider splitting UW-Madison from the rest of the Universities of Wisconsin system, according to a panel of legislators and others making a list of recommendations about the future of the UW system.
The majority of the panel — which consists of 18 legislators, business owners, UW Board of Regents representatives and UW system faculty and staff — is concerned that UW-Madison is being held back by issues facing the other 12 UW system campuses, including fellow research university UW-Milwaukee.
As part of spinning UW-Madison off from the remainder of the UW system, the panel proposes that the Madison campus could have its own governing board, akin to what the Regents are now, have its own state funding from the Legislature separate from the rest of the UW system, and potentially be granted the authority to take on debt to build and renovate facilities.
UW-Madison is the only university among its Big Ten peers that has no bonding authority and must go to the Legislature every time it wants to borrow money to build, regardless of whether taxpayers will end up footing the bill or it will be paid by revenues from departments such as Athletics or University Housing.
The proposals approved by the legislative study panel are only suggestions for lawmakers to consider when they return to the Capitol in January.
UW-Madison and UW system leaders reject the proposal to separate UW-Madison from the rest.
"It is true that UW-Madison has different opportunities and challenges than Wisconsin's comprehensive universities. It is vitally important that these challenges continue to be addressed, both for UW-Madison's future and the future of our universities as a whole," UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said in a statement. "We believe it is not only possible but preferable to address these issues and these differences within our existing governance structures."
UW-Madison supports potentially itself or the UW system being able to borrow on its own behalf, though, with Lucas saying it would be a "significant improvement" from the current budget process.
The UW system is "better and stronger together" and improvements to the bonding authority process and investments in UW-Madison can be made without separating the flagship from the other universities, UW system spokesperson Mark Pitsch said.
"Additional governance structure and bureaucracy would not improve affordability and access, which we believe should be a priority," Pitsch said. "On the contrary, a split would increase costs, decrease efficiency, and undermine collaboration among our public universities."
The idea to split UW-Madison off from the UW system isn't new. It was floated by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in his first term and ultimately failed.
Both Democrats on the panel, Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Alex Joers, D-Middleton, voted against separating out UW-Madison, as they did with many of the proposals; other votes against were cast by UW-La Crosse Provost and recent interim chancellor Betsy Morgan, current Regent and Wisconsin Technical College System Board President Mark Tyler, and former Regent Jan Mueller, who worked in nonpartisan state auditing and fiscal offices for more than three decades.
Larson said he surveyed nearly 700 people, about half of whom were constituents in his Milwaukee district, and the overwhelming majority said they didn't want to see UW-Madison split from the rest of the UW system.
Both of the Republicans of the panel, Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, and Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, voted in favor, as did many of the business representatives on the panel.
Robert Venable, president of Chicago-based Miami Corporation Management and a UW-Madison graduate, said he thinks it's vital for the other 12 UW system schools to have their own governing board.
"The focus has been on an independent board for Madison ... the idea that we risk losing is that it also then has a Board of Regents or trustees, whatever the term would be, that can focus on the comprehensives," Venable said. "But I think given the disruption that's occurring in higher ed today, not only demographic, but some of the overlap issues with the tech colleges, that having a board that can focus just on the comprehensives is actually more important and helping deal with those existential issues. Madison is not facing existential issues."
Lawmakers controversially merged UW-Madison with the Wisconsin State University system in 1971 to avoid duplication. Back then, the concern was the same: Would merging the systems together hurt the reputation of UW-Madison?
Exit interviews, tuition rules
Other ideas the group approved include creating new panels to identify goals for higher education across Wisconsin; pushing for exit interviews with UW system students who drop out to understand why they're leaving; and eliminating "artificial price ceilings," which could effectively prohibit the Legislature from enforcing tuition freezes like it did for the majority of the 2010s.
The panel rejected several proposals to expand oversight or hand decision-making authority to the state's budget-writing committee, currently controlled by Republicans. Some panel members were especially wary of potentially politicizing the Board of Regents.
"I just ask the committee to really think through what the long-term impacts are to our educational system, given that it is funded, obviously, by the Legislature and taxpayers, and they already have their say from that standpoint," panel member, UW-Madison graduate and president of Wausau-based Hsu Ginsing Enterprises William Hsu said. "To then put them on the committee that's then responsible for also executing that piece is something that maybe hasn't been discussed as a group as deeply as some of the other issues."
The panel is recommending giving the budget-writing committee limited oversight on bonding authority. The UW system would be allowed to have bonding authority up to a certain dollar amount but might need approval beyond that.
Other recommendations that passed include greater oversight through new governing boards or changing the structure of how the Regents are nominated. Though an outright tuition increase proposal didn't pass, panel members said they were interested in reducing "artificial price limits" set either by the Legislature or the Regents, with some advocating for the UW system to charge closer to what neighboring states' universities do.
Recommendations include requiring UW system's student services staff to interview any student who leaves a UW system school to go outside of the system or nowhere at all and reducing duplication of services at campuses that are geographically close.
UW system's solution absent
The panel isn't proposing many of the solutions UW system leadership says would help — like, for example, more money.
Under both Democratic and Republican governors, the UW system has seen millions in state aid cuts, the most recent in 2015 when Republicans cut $250 million from its budget while keeping in-state undergraduate tuition frozen.
When state aid for the UW system has increased, much of it has come from legislators giving all state employees wage adjustments.
UW system leaders and union representatives also have pushed for better working conditions, pay raises to bring staff in line with comparable institutions and more student services to increase retention. None of those are among the recommendations, either.
The UW system is planning to ask for an additional $855 million in the upcoming biennial budget, after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers indicated he would ask for at least $800 million in his proposal.
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