UW-Milwaukee would be demoted by plan to split apart Wisconsin university system | Opinion

The Journal Sentinel reported on Nov. 3 that a committee of 18 people recommended that the legislature split off UW-Madison from the state’s public university system.

The vote by the committee was partisan. The Republican legislators on the committee and their supporters voted to recommended the split. The Democratic legislators on the committee and their supporters voted against it.

The dispute goes back to 2011 when former Gov. Scott Walker proposed splitting off UW-Madison, along with imposing a significant budget cut for the University. He also opposed existing tenure provisions and shared governance.

It was a bad idea then — and now.

Idea to break off UW-Madison began under Scott Walker's administration

The move was billed by Walker as a shift of resources to “workforce development.” That is a distraction.  Wisconsin was and is fifth in the nation in per-student spending on vocational and technical education.

The UW System was created to increase access to higher education across the geography of the state and across the income divide. It provided an array of two and four- year campuses. In addition, it added UWM as the urban doctoral  campus akin to UCLA in the California University System.

Opinion: UW-Milwaukee won't retain top status with more cuts. Wisconsin could fall behind.

This array of campuses joined the outstanding campus at UW-Madison, akin to U.C. Berkeley. The stakeholders in the strong research faculties include students, but also businesses, professional and cultural enterprises and advanced manufacturers. UW-Madison and UWM are the two research institutions in Wisconsin recognized by the Carnegie Commission as Research One, their highest designation.

Under the Walker plan pushed by the committee, UW-Madison would have its own Board of Regents, while the collection of relegated campuses would have a separate Board of Regents. These boards would fight each other for resources from the Legislature.

In addition, the exiled campuses would lose the UW brand, which has been essential for UWM and the other campuses to hire more qualified faculty, and to compete more effectively for grants, contracts and other outside money and special assignments. The UW brand is also essential to attract students, who benefit from graduating from a UW institution.

First step in split came with rebranding 'The Universities of Wisconsin'

A divisive step to impose this plan has already taken place. The Madison campus will now be labeled as “The University of Wisconsin,” while the rest of the campuses, including UWM, are rebranded as “The Universities of Wisconsin.”

Opinion: UW is running campuses like corporations. Wisconsin colleges are suffering.

This is no time to be downgrading one of the world’s most important systems of public universities. UW System President Jay Rothman, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, and Gov. Tony Evers have all publicly opposed this splitting off of UW Madison, a fugitive relic of the Walker years.

Everyone else should too.

William Holahan is an emeritus professor of economics and former chair of the Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Matthew Flynn is a retired attorney and member of the Board of Visitors of UWM.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW System would suffer from plan to break apart colleges | Opinion