UW Chancellors come up with alternative proposal for UW-Madison

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MADISON - All the UW chancellors except Madison’s Biddy Martin support an alternative plan to give all campuses more autonomy, while keeping Madison as part of the system. The Board of Regents recently came up with the idea, after opposing Martin’s plan to separate Madison from the rest of the university system.

Martin’s proposal is part of the governor’s next state budget – and the chancellor said yesterday she still backs her plan, and is against the Regents’ alternative. Martin wants the state’s flagship campus to set its own tuition and break free of state purchasing-and-personnel rules in order to be more efficient. The Regents say all 26 UW campuses should have that kind of autonomy, but Martin says the Madison split would let her do a better job of managing cuts in state funding. And it would create an oversight board that would deal with the special challenges Madison faces as major research campus.

The Regents voted 16-1 earlier this month to maintain the UW structure as it is. They’re still developing their plan for more autonomy on all campuses. It would give them more flexibility to set tuition, choose staff classifications, and plan building projects. Assembly Colleges Committee chairman Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) says both the Regents’ and Martin’s plans face an uphill battle in getting passed in the Legislature. Nass fears that tuition would jump sharply, and more state funds would be wasted.

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