‘Most expendable’

“Merger would keep UW System’s two-year campuses afloat despite steep enrollment losses” accepts the University of Wisconsin System’s President Ray Cross’s explanation that declining enrollments are the sole reason for merging the UW Colleges with four-year institutions at face value (Oct. 12).

While affordability and logistics are important, the curriculum and support system the UW Colleges provides the state’s most vulnerable students will be lost. The UW System Office of Policy Analysis and Research statistics show that UW Colleges students who transfer to four-year campuses have higher success rates than students who start at the four-year institutions.

When I attend national conferences in my field, I hear nothing but respect and admiration from out-ofstate colleagues who praise the Wisconsin Idea and the UW Colleges’ critical role in providing access to the highest proportion of state residents than any other institution. This pride is in sharp contrast to when I return home to work in a state where the common political narrative is that being an educator is a shameful, lazy profession and that the UW System (aside from athletics) is a burden to the state economy.

My colleagues at the UW Colleges are proud of what we do — every day we recognize the importance of our nationally-recognized and award winning programs specifically designed to help our students achieve college-level success. Now, we are devastated to see that we, along with the success of the students that we serve, are also the most expendable.

Cassandra Phillips UW-Colleges Shorewood