What began as a vague proposal for increased autonomy for the University of Wisconsin-Madison became a fleshed out plan in the spring semester, igniting campus debate and finding its way into the governor’s budget.
Campus groups responded to new details of the proposal, which Chancellor Biddy Martin began advocating more than one year ago, with rallies on Bascom Hill, public forums and cross-college discussions of the plan’s merits.
Gov. Scott Walker proposed public authority for the Madison campus, with similar administrative flexibilities to follow at UW-Milwaukee and other UW System campuses, during his Feb. 1 biennial budget address.
While rhetoric has since equated the original version of the New Badger Partnership with the public authority model, Martin has maintained that the separation from the system outlined by Walker was not the original intention of her proposal.
Walker’s budget also dealt both UW-Madison and the UW System $125 million in state funding cuts during the 2011-2013 budget cycle.
Throughout countless public question and answer sessions, Martin has advocated a new set of flexibilities for the campus, which she said are critical to maintain access and affordability to higher education in the state for all students.
Among the additional “tools” Martin has said the proposal would provide are the ability to create a completely new personnel system that would better serve a world-class research university in providing faculty and staff with competitive pay plans.
Martin has also said additional administrative flexibilities from both the state government and the UW System would be necessary to maintain the quality of education and value of degrees at Wisconsin’s flagship university, while nations compete to establish world-class research institutions and the battle to attract top students and instructors intensifies on an international scale.
As legislative activity concerning the proposed split from the UW System has picked up speed, groups in opposition to the plan have worked to mobilize students and faculty at UW and across the system in hopes of broadening a base of opposition.
Organizations ranging from the United Council of UW Students, Student Labor Action Coalition and various multicultural groups have worked to organize supporters against the proposal, most notably marching to Martin’s office near the end of April, occupying Bascom Hall and listening as the chancellor emerged from her office to hold an impromptu forum.
Opponents continue to contend the proposed separation would promote a sentiment of elitism among the UW-Madison campus community, would prove detrimental to the other UW System schools and could weaken transfer agreements and collaboration between campuses.
Other key tenets of the argument against the proposal include the assertion that public authority marks a shift to a high tuition, high financial aid model which does not offer a specific plan to increase need-based aid as tuition for students rises.
Matters were further complicated when the UW System introduced the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, an alternate plan for flexibilities for all campuses while retaining a unified system, during a February Board of Regents meeting.
As the two competing plans have reached legislative committees, several lawmakers have indicated a desire to remove the New Badger Partnership from the budget for later consideration as a separate bill.
The fate of the Madison campus and its relationship with the UW System will likely be determined when the Legislature debates the state budget during the summer months.
