UW-Waukesha Future Update: June 26th, 2006
 The Waukesha Study group (of which I'm part) submitted a report to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents at its June meeting last week. You can view this report online at http://www.wisconsin.edu/waukesha/, along with much supplementary material.
The report recognizes the need for expanding and enhancing the educational opportunities in Waukesha County and the "Milwaukee 7" region, the county of Milwaukee and the 6 counties closest to it. It evaluates the educational alternatives and makes some recommendations. The strongest recommendation is called the "University Center" approach. Essentially, this is a "Yes, and--" approach, in which the gateway mission and present organizational identification and structure of UW-Waukesha as part of the UW Colleges is preserved, while a new organization--a "University Center"--is created to serve additional needs.
The University Center approach is well-established in two-year schools in a number of states. Outstanding models exist in Illinois (in Lake County, right to the south of Racine) and in Macomb, Michigan. Take a look at these web sites to see what a University Center could look like here:
As you can see from these examples, a University Center brings programs to campuses in order to serve students--programs that offer baccalaureate degrees, master's degrees, and certificates. These programs run the gamut, from business to education to engineering. The great advantage to these programs is that they allow the educational institution to be flexible--to offer programs to students as students demand and need them, rather than to establish programs and then recruit students to the programs. The disadvantage to the traditional mode of establishing programs and then recruiting students is that it ties an institution down to a set number of programs that may or may not be relevant to the future needs and desires of students. The University Center approach, on the other hand, offers the benefits of agility and nimbleness; it allows the institution to change its program array rapidly, literally semester-to-semester, if need be, in order to better serve students.
The study group also looked at such options as "merger" with UW-Milwaukee and the transformation of UW-Waukesha into a senior-level institution on a par with schools such as UW-Whitewater and UW-Milwaukee. In the case of a "merger," the study found that, rather than saving money, a "merger" would cost a significant amount of money, and that many unanswered questions remained concerning the shape that a "merger" would take. For example, would UW-Milwaukee preserve the vital gateway mission of the school? Would tuition and fees remain the same, or would they be raised to match what students pay in Milwaukee? What would happen to existing faculty and staff? These are only a few of the questions that the "merger" proposal raises but which, so far, have remained unanswered.
The study group did recommend that Waukesha County set aside some of the present unused land on the UW-Waukesha campus for the building of a research center to be used by UW-Milwaukee, which I consider to be an exciting and viable possibility.
As for transforming UW-Waukesha into a four-year stand-alone school, the study found that this option would cost literally tens of millions of dollars and was not feasible in today's climate of fiscal restraint.
The University Center approach, then, was recommended by the study group both because of the fiscal responsibility it promotes and the enhanced opportunities it represents to the students of the county and the region.
But I urge you to do some research and make up your own minds. Take a look at the web sites above; read the Study report. In addition you might want to do a Google News search for "UW-Waukesha" and read some of the news reports, editorials, and columns that have come out recently. Here are some samples:
The Regents received the study group report and directed our new Chancellor, David Wilson (who has his own website--http://www.uwex.uwc.edu/), to meet with Carlos Santiago, the Chancellor of UW-Milwaukee, in order to talk about next steps.
You can view a news summary of the Regents' meeting at:
If you have questions or concerns about this matter, please feel free to email me. I'm very interested in hearing what students have to say about this matter. I also urge you to write to your legislators to express your views on these issues, and to write to Chancellor Wilson and to UW-System President Riley.
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