[media-credit name=’JAKE NAUGHTON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents heard a
presentation Thursday about how information from each campus will be collected
and compiled with the intention of improving accountability.

UW System President Kevin Reilly said the "College Portrait:
A Voluntary System of Accountability Providing Information on the Undergraduate
Experience" will serve as a tool for perspective students to see how different
UW campuses compare to one another.

"A lot of information that’s out there now [that is] hard to
access will be gathered up and captured on a website for each campus," Reilly
said. "Prospective students and their families, students who may be looking to
transfer or students who are already at an institution and are happy and just
want to know how their institution is doing on some standard measure will be
able to click on … and get to that information in a way they can’t now."

Regent Danae Davis, head of the Education Committee, said
the idea to compile the information in a usable manner is a "fabulous idea,"
adding she looks forward to seeing the details.

"I think the idea of providing comparative data on the
website available to students and their parents, so they can make informed
decisions based on student experience, for example, is a wonderful one," Davis
said.

But the diversity of different schools and offerings
available in the UW System, Davis said, should be carefully compared.

"There should be a way of comparing similar kinds of
outcomes, regardless of the schools, in my own opinion, but then we have to be
sure to not send a message that any one of our campuses is any better then the
other," Davis said. "It’s more about this menu of options."

Regent Chuck Pruitt was also supportive of the College
Portrait site, calling it a "great innovation."

"I think it sort of advances this issue of providing more
and more information to students to sort of empower students to make their own
choice. I think that’s the best aspect," Pruitt said.

The regents also discussed their appreciation of the version
of the 2007-09 Wisconsin state budget that was passed last month.

"I think in the end, the Legislature and the governor
believed our arguments about how the future of the university is to the future
of the state, believed that we really would deliver on what we were asking to
do in the Growth Agenda and funded most of what we asked, so in that sense,
it’s a very good budget," Reilly said.

Davis said she was feeling positive about the UW System’s
future financial situation.

"I am absolutely thrilled because we turn this big ship
around in terms of declining resources and investment in our university system,
and so I’m thrilled," Davis said.

The regents also heard a presentation on charter schools in
the Milwaukee area, which are run by UW-Milwaukee.

"The degree to which we look at these schools — what we’re
doing well, what we're not doing well — improve those things, you improve the
pipeline of better and better students and hopefully more and more qualified students,"
Pruitt said of the charter schools.

The Board of Regents will meet again today in Van Hise Hall.