While members of the Wisconsin State Legislature have speculated the plan to split UW-Madison from the rest of the UW System will not be realized, UW Chancellor Biddy Martin expressed her confidence in the New Badger Partnership and continued to field student questions during a well-attended public forum Wednesday,

Although the proposal, which would effectively split UW-Madison off of the UW System, has become a topic of heated debate throughout the past several days as the Wisconsin State Legislature begins to examine the details, Martin said she was confident the proposal would gain momentum.

“I think it has a good chance – I don’t think we have the votes right now, and I don’t think it’s guaranteed by any means, but I am very hopeful,” Martin said. “I really do think they are just looking at this – it’s a change, which is never easy for anyone and in wake of the other changes taking place throughout the state, it’s especially difficult to contemplate change.”

Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, said earlier this week the split might not be seen in the upcoming budget, arguing the split would be a tall order for the Legislature to take on. Still, Martin said she believed “a lot could change” between now and the time the proposal actually goes up for substantial debate.

The proposal has also recently received some criticism from Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who proposed splitting the New Badger Partnership proposal off of the budget bill to allow for additional time for review. 

Martin said doing so would not be realistic under the proposed $120 million cut in state funding for UW.

“I think this can be substantiated with a lot of data, but the world has changed a lot since 1971 when the UW System was born,” Martin said. “The thing that has changed that interests me the most is the market-driven quality of higher education. The state of Wisconsin cannot afford to lose what everyone else in the world is trying to build.”

She said one of the main reasons faculty on UW’s campus should support the proposal is because of the direct financial incentives faculty would receive under the partnership, which would in turn cycle to aid the students and Wisconsin’s economy.

“We have employees on this campus who have already reached the maximum they can earn in their career, and they have 20 years left at UW-Madison,” Martin said. “The pay grades are set at the System level, and they just do not make sense for a research university.”

Communication Arts Chair Sue Zaeske, one of the forum’s co-sponsors, said the forum came about after numbers of graduate students approached her and other department chairs with questions about the New Badger Partnership – questions she said she was not able to answer.

After the forum, Zaeske said she thought Martin accurately responded to graduate student questions, calming fears about salary payments for teaching assistants and explaining the structure of the governing board proposed under the partnership.

“[When the students approached me with questions,] I didn’t feel I could answer them largely because I think more information needs to be put out there about it,” Zaeske said. “I absolutely think the response the graduate students had to Chancellor Martin made it clear to me that a lot of their questions had been answered.”