Confusion on the Interpretation of the Wisconsin Idea Partnership

Over that past few days I have been going over the statements made about the Wisconsin Idea Partnership. Specifically I’ve been looking into how much support this idea is getting, and what people’s interpretation of the plan are. After looking at everything, I’m afraid to say that not everyone is on the same page (and some people may be disappointed with other’s interpretation).

On the side of UW System I’ve heard it been said multiple times, both publicly and privately, that the Wisconsin Idea Partnership would keep the UW System as a state agency. Even in their summary document they state that the WIP “avoids the creation of a new public authority.” This has many downsides. One of them is in the area of finance. Remaining a state agency would not allow for the separation of university funds from state funds. This is one of the huge benefits of becoming a public authority because it would allow us to fully control how and when our own money is being spent. Another area is human resources. Without public authority statutes, universities across the state would still have to follow the same classification system that the rest of the state government uses. UW System says that they will be able to achieve these flexibilities through statute changes, but I have major doubts. Even if they were able to write the statute in a new way, they would still be connected through the Department of Administration for these issues and would have to go through long and arduous processes to accomplish even the simplest of changes.

Now lets look on the Governor’s side, whose voice will hold a lot of sway on the actions of the Joint Finance Committee. In an interview yesterday (9:40 mark) the Governor stated that:

I told them [the Chancellors] at that time why my budget was going to include the authority for the University of Wisconsin Madison, but that I was open to having that same sort of authority for campuses all across the state…

Notice that he never mentions that UW System once. He specifically singles out the individual campuses for gaining the same authority over matters that are proposed for UW-Madison. I believe that the Walker does not intend to extend the flexiblities to the UW System that they are asking for. Instead, I believe that he means to create additional authorities for individual campuses that ask for it. This is going directly against what UW System says in their summary document that changes that are made should be

within the current Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System governance structure.

There is confusion between what UW System is saying and what the Governor is saying. This confusion has the possibility to blindside many UW System officials. That is why again System needs to come out with the true details of the WIP so that this problem is not there. Maybe they should take a page out of North Park Street and merge the WIP with the New Badger Partnership and find a compromise from their position and the position of the Governor.

An Inexperienced Leader~Samuel Seering