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Committee to explore options in possible merger
Board of Regents to decide based on results
By Maureen Mayrand
“Right now, we’re exploring options on what makes the most sense, and we’re not ruling out any type of model.”
– Rita Cheng, vice chancellor of Academic Affairs
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus may expand into Waukesha by July 1, 2007, annexing UW-Waukesha as “UWM West.”
As the merging of the two campuses has been the subject of ongoing debate among politicians, campus administrators and students, a committee was formed at the end of September to study and review the possible merger.
“I am focused on what we call ‘responsible stewardship’ — being sure that we use public resources to responsibly serve the public,” said Jane Crisler, UW-Waukesha interim dean and a member of the review committee. “The study is a way to do that — to be sure that we have accurate and full information of what the higher education needs and then use our resources to meet those needs. We need to preserve and increase the return on our educational assets.”
Still in its earliest stages, the study has thus far come up with proposals for collaborative programs in engineering, business and health care. Although the committee has not yet had a formal meeting, there has been a series of discussions among committee members and with individuals in the county and business leaders, said Rita Cheng, vice chancellor of Academic Affairs.
“Right now, we’re exploring options on what makes the most sense, and we’re not ruling out any type of model,” Cheng said.
The results of the review are to be submitted to the UW System Board of Regents for its consideration by the end of January. How the regents decide to proceed will have an impact both in Waukesha, the Milwaukee metro area and at UWM.
“We want to provide more courses, degree programs, research and service in Waukesha and do it in the most effective and efficient way possible,” said Donald Mash, UW System executive senior vice president. “It is a complicated matter and is made more difficult given the UW System’s shrinking resource base.”
Mash, the coordinator of the study, said that it is premature to know how the merger would affect UWM.
“I am sure the regents would not want to proceed with any course of action that would adversely affect UWM students,” he said.
UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago said that although he has not yet seen how the work is progressing, he does have some principals that guide his thinking of the possible merger.
“First, no resources from our current campus will be put to support the UWM-Waukesha initiative,” Santiago said. “Anything we do there has to be self-funding.”
Santiago also said the UW System needs to provide more educational opportunities for students in Waukesha County, the state’s third largest county. Anything done in Waukesha with UW-Waukesha and Waukesha County Technical College must result in the “whole being greater than the sum of the parts.”
UW-Waukesha students have other concerns. Many feel that the possible merger would have a negative impact.
Camille Sanchez-Ovadal, president of the UW-Waukesha Student Government Association, said that she and other students fought against the merger by going out into the community to gather signatures for a petition.
They also launched a Web site to fight the merger, www.saveuww.com, which is no longer available, giving visitors the opportunity to send Gov. Jim Doyle a letter urging him to veto the legislation aimed at joining the two campuses.
“A merger is only successful if both parties benefit,” Sanchez-Ovadal said. “If the study finds a way to protect what we love about UW-Waukesha — its easy accessibility, the small class sizes and lower tuition — we’d be for the merge.”
Crisler said the needs and the possibilities in the area need to be identified before the committee will perform cost accounting to determine the costs and benefits of changes in services.
The committee is studying the educational needs of the community, with special attention to the possibility of increasing the number of people with bachelor’s degrees in Waukesha County. However, they have not yet determined the means for the increase.
“Given the cuts in the UW budget, we must be very careful to be sure that any change we make is cost-effective and results in gains for the students,” Crisler said. “At this point, there is no evidence that a merger would or would not be the best means to do this.
“UW-Waukesha and UWM are both excellent universities offering high quality education, though in different ways. We’ve been working together for decades and we’re looking forward to new forms of collaboration to offer the best of both worlds to Waukesha.”
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