UW-Waukesha Future Update: August 18th, 2006

Patrick Schmitt's Photo There have been several developments on the UW-Waukesha front that I’d like to tell you about.

In June, at the UW Board of Regents meeting in Milwaukee, Chancellor Carlos Santiago (UW-Milwaukee) and Chancellor David Wilson (UW-Colleges/UW-Extension) were given the charge by the Board to develop a financial analysis of the various options before the Board for the future of UW-Waukesha. These options include:

The “University Center” approach (bringing degree completion programs and graduate programs from other schools onto the UW-Waukesha campus)
The “Four-Year Stand-Alone” approach, in which UW-Waukesha would change into a comprehensive university, similar to UW-Green Bay or UW-Eau Claire
The “merger” approach, in which UW-Waukesha would merge with UW-Milwaukee.

A group representing both the Colleges and UW-Milwaukee was put together for the sole purpose of doing this analysis. That group includes:

Margaret Cleek (Provost and Vice Chancellor, UW-Colleges)
Steve Wildeck (Chief Business Officer, UW-Colleges/UWEX)
Patrick Schmitt (Dean, UW-Waukesha)
Rita Cheng (Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UW-Milwaukee)
Ruth Williams (Associate Vice Chancellor, UW-Milwaukee)
Andy Richards (Chief Business Officer, UW-Milwaukee)

A preliminary meeting involving this “Group of Six” and the two chancellors took place on July 31. Two tele-conferences involving the “Group of Six” have taken place since then, and the assumptions on which the modeling will take place have been established. It’s important to remember that, especially in terms of the “merger” option, no plan has ever been put forward concerning this proposition; consequently, it’s been necessary to establish a set of base-line assumptions about what a merger would look like—assumptions about faculty, programs, and facilities.

This progress was reported yesterday to the Board of Regents Education Committee by Donald Mash, Executive Vice-President of the UW-System, and the two chancellors. This report was summarized in the report of the Education Committee to the full Board today. You can listen to this summary at this link:

http://www.uwex.edu/ics/stream/regents/meetings/

Click on the “August 18, 2006” section, selecting whatever media player works for you. The report begins at about 54:45 and lasts for about five minutes; another, much smaller section relating to UW-Waukesha starts at about 1:11:44. (I should note that these are the times that appear when using Windows Media Player; times should not, but may, change if you’re using another player).

A number of points emerged during this report. Perhaps most importantly, it appears right now as if the “Group of Six” will be expanded. Certainly two representatives from the UW-System Administration will be included, one financial person and one academic person. Moreover, it is probable that additional representation will be sought from both faculty and students. In addition, UW System has directed that two additional upper-level academic programs will be offered at UW-Waukesha by Fall 2007. What these programs will be and what institution will provide them has not been clarified at this point, although they will be drawn from the array suggested by WCAN (Wisconsin County Action Network). This list includes engineering, information technology, marketing, general business, and nursing.

This expanded group will render its analysis to the UW-System Administration in November. As you can hear in the webcast, the Board of Regents desires an actual recommendation concerning the future of UW-Waukesha to come from System Administration by December, at which time, presumably, the Board will take action.

You can view recent news stories related to the campus using the links found on this page:

http://www.wisconsin.edu/waukesha/news.htm

I’ll continue to update you as events develop.

Patrick Schmitt, Campus Dean