Come down from your ivory tower. UW-Madison is still a state school and should be accessible to those residents who have shown academic ability at less prestigious Wisconsin schools.

dont worry most of the trasfer students will fail out within a year anyway

These MATC students are going to be in for a real big wakeup call once they transfer. Bet 99% won't make it a semester.

I wonder if transfer students would have been able to spell transfer correctly?

Forget academic ability. What about simple economics? How many students have the brains but not the cash to go to Madison for all four years? If you're going to spend your first two years taking prerequisites and distribution requirements (or whatever UW calls the non-major courses), why not take them at someplace that doesn't cost so much?

UW wins with this arrangement because it gets more tuition dollars without having to expend the same number of resources to deal with them. Since these are MATC students, they're from the area and don't need university housing. They're already sold on UW, so there's no recruiting expense.

Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of this newspaper's elitist attitude. In the past few weeks, we've seen several columns and editorials on this theme: UW-Milwaukee doesn't deserve a name change because we're Madison and they're not; corporations that choose not to recruit here are missing out on the best employees because we go to Madison and others don't; it doesn't matter that our fans have no clue what's happening at a football game because we're busy shouting obscenities at other sections, because we're Madison and it's what we do; and today's editorial that states that since we go to Madison and others don't, we're obviously smarter and better people. I can't wait for the annual predictable post-Mifflin column that once again trots out the tired line about working hard and partying hard and best overall college experience.

I can only hope that next semester's editorial board will treat the Op-Ed page as something more than a personal propaganda page. Do graduating seniors have something to do with this, they feel the need to inflate the importance and value of their experience just before they leave?

hmm...elitist? Why wouldn't you want to be able to say that you went to a great school? Or maybe you transferred in and feel offended? As a recent alum, I feel that making it easier for MATC students to transfer to UW is absolutely not necessary. If someone f**ks up in high school and can't get into UW...then, fine, they should go to MATC and work their ass off. But I don't understand how making it easier for them to transfer is going to help UW as an institution. There are enough in-state students as it is...why do we need to make it easier? Economics is not an issue, I mean...obviously if UW admitted LESS Wisconsin students and MORE out of state students then I think they would bring in more money, considering out of state tuition is like 4X what in state is. Call it elitist if you want, but frankly I call it school spirit.

Have the out-of-staters forgotten that UW-Madison is a PUBLIC University and has an obligation to serve and educate it's citizens: those of Wisconsin and Madison?

First of all, does the Editorial Board know the level of academic rigor that is required at MATC? Do you have any evidence that a given course at MATC does not meet the same level of rigor that the comparable UW course does? You cite no evidence because frankly you appear to have no idea what is taught at a higher educational institution outside of the one(s) you have attended. You are assuming that the UW is more elite, more prestigious because it just is. However, making assumptions without evidence is not the sort of "sifting and winnowing" for which the highly esteemed UW Madison campus is know.
Second, the writers also seems to assume that UW Madison will be swamped with MATC transfers. What numbers are we talking about? What is "a sizable influx"?
Finally, UW schools (Madison included)already accept transfers from regional technical colleges. The writers here tell the "technical schools" what their purpose is without knowing much of anything about the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS). Are you aware that UW students frequently transfer to WTCS schools? It's not just a one-way street.
The state legislature has recently stepped in, trying to lower barriers that impede students' transfers within the state school systems, reasoning that this will be good for students and good for the state.
As for the editorial board, perhaps you should put your prestigious UW education to work and research the Wisconsin Technical College System before you make assumptions about its educational value.

"First of all, does the Editorial Board know the level of academic rigor that is required at MATC? Do you have any evidence that a given course at MATC does not meet the same level of rigor that the comparable UW course does? "

I know people that attended (attend) MATC. It's a joke. I took harder classes in high school. Any MATC student could be high on crack all semester and still get a 3.0.

duhr... this is a farmer's school anyway... a few tech students ain't gonna hurt...

Actually Elizabeth...
I did take courses while I was in high school at UW-LaCrosse and easily got A's in them. I feel that people can choose to pursue whatever type or level of education that they wish, but lowering UW's standards is just not acceptable in my book. While many of my classes at UW were very difficult, they prepared me well for my future and I gained an enormous amount of knowledge. My only hope is that this "academic" atmosphere is not only maintained, but possibly even improved upon. I do not forsee more local students with lower academic standards helping to accomplish such a goal. Maybe I'm wrong...but thats how I feel.

"academic ability at less prestigious Wisconsin schools."

A 3.0 at MATC isn't academic ability.

we should get somethign out of this deal