The Wisconsin Assembly speaker and Senate Majority leader released their appointments to a special task force focused on the University of Wisconsin System Friday.
Created by the 2011-13 biennium state budget, the task force will focus on six main goals concerning higher education, including whether the UW System needs to be restructured and boost tuition flexibilities. The task force was brought into the spotlight after former Chancellor Biddy Martin’s New Badger Partnership brought UW and the System into a national conversation.
A main goal of the task force will be to keep education accessible with affordable tuition, according to a statement from the UW System.
“Higher education is becoming more competitive, more challenging and more costly in today’s world,” Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement from the Wisconsin State Legislature. “This task force has an important job to do, and I appreciate the hard work our appointees are going to put into it.”
Other responsibilities include transferring system employees to new personnel systems, deciding employee pay plans, looking at additional operational flexibilities and better coordinating transferring credits between institutions, the statement said.
Mike Mikalsen, spokesperson for committee member Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, emphasized the committee’s loyalty to the UW System.
“I think, in general, the overall committee has very long ties to the UW System in [its] operation and management,” Mikalsen said.
The task force was funded with $50,000 and is mandated to submit reports to the Senate standing committee, the Assembly standing committee and the Joint Finance Committee by Jan. 1, 2012.
The task force consists of 17 members, 12 of whom are appointed by Jeff Fitzgerald and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.
Additionally, two members from the minority leader of each house, two from the governor and one member chosen by the Finance Committee co-chairs comprise the task force, according to a statement from the Wisconsin State Legislature.
Scott Fitzgerald’s appointees are Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, UW-Platteville Chancellor Dennis Shields, Wis. Technical College Board President Mark Tyler, Former UW Alumni Association Chair Renee Ramirez, UW Colleges and Extension Chancellor Ray Cross and Carroll University Board of Directors member Joanne Brandes.
Jeff Fitzgerald’s appointees are Nass, Rep. Pat Strachota, R-West Bend, UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells, Business Owner Tim Higgins, former UW Regent Fred Mohs and former UW Student Regent Joe Alexander.
Mikalsen said the variety of appointees will prove beneficial to the task force.
“This committee has room to go to a lot of different directions,” he said.
Previous University Committee Chair Judith Burstyn said that the lack of Democrats is not an issue as there are Republicans knowledgeable about higher education. She added that many of these individuals were not chosen.
“My primary question is whether [the committee] will have a good understanding of higher education […] and whether the legislators really have that depth of understanding to make these decisions,” Burstyn said.
Burstyn also said the build up of the committee will have political repercussions.
“The composition is obviously going to have political outcomes,” Burstyn said.
