UW campus mergers in works
All 2-year colleges will be part of complicated plan that reorganizes institutions into regional clusters
MADISON – Students who graduate from two-year University of Wisconsin campuses starting in December will have a different name on their diplomas, but what that name will be is yet to be decided.
A reorganization that creates regional UW clusters of four-year campuses with two-year branches will be phased in over the next year and a half, assuming it is approved June 28 by the federal Higher Learning Commission.
The 1,600 to 1,800 employees of the UW’s two-year institutions will shift their institutional affiliation first, followed in a year by human resources, IT services, and financial aid distribution. While all 13 of the two-year colleges are part of the planned merger, only seven of the four-year campuses will take on regional branch campuses.
The first change noticeable to the public is expected to be name changes for the two-year campuses, effective July 1.
If the Higher Learning Commission sends the UW System back to the drawing board, it would be delayed at least until December.
The commission must approve shifting accreditation for granting of associate’s degrees from the two-year campuses to the four-year campuses with which they will merge.
Students applying for admission to a two-year UW college this fall will still apply to that campus, rather than its four-year partner institution.
A downward spiral in enrollment at the two-year campuses spurred the proposal last October to keep them afloat by merging them with nearby four-year UWs.
To say the details are complicated and complex is an understatement, university officials agreed Thursday during a UW System Board of Regents meeting on the UW-Madison campus.
“Trying to fix a bicycle while you’re riding it is very hard,” UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone said.
The chancellors of all seven fouryear campuses that are part of the merger spoke during Thursday’s regents meeting about how the transition is going. All said they have been meeting with business leaders, city and county officials in communities with two-year campuses, and student and faculty groups on the two-year campuses.
UWM will anchor one regional cluster with UW-Waukesha County and UW-Washington County as branch campuses.
New names for branch campuses have not been decided. But the UWM merger, for example, could create a branch called UW-Milwaukee in Waukesha.
All name changes will have to include “University of Wisconsin,” be approved and supported by the city and/ or county that created each two-year entity, and engage the community in the decision-making, UW System President Ray Cross said.
Chancellors at the four-year campuses still don’t know what their budgets for their regional clusters will look like.
Many two-year campuses have structural budget deficits that will have to be absorbed by the four-year parent campus.
UW-Stevens Point, for example, already is grappling with a $4.5 million structural deficit. By merging with UWMarshfield/Wood County and UWMarathon County, it will take on their $800,000 and $2.3 million deficits, respectively.
The combined $3.1 million additional budget deficit is larger than any other four-year campus will absorb, Chancellor Bernie Patterson told the regents.
Enrollment declines further complicate the merger budget picture.
UW-Stevens Point has seen a 14% enrollment drop since 2010 — from 9,500 students in 2010 to 8,165 in fall 2017.
UW-Marshfield/Wood County’s enrollment decline in the same timeframe was 47%, while UW-Marathon County lost 51%.
Under the restructuring, students could still freely transfer from a two-year campus in one regional cluster to any four-year UW institution outside the cluster, and no campus would be closed.
The four-year campuses will be “held harmless” financially for at least two years, Cross said, explaining that the UW System will make sure there isn’t a negative financial impact for them as a result of the merger.
The restructuring is touted as a way to allow the UW System to maintain a higher education presence in out-state Wisconsin counties where the number of college-age students has dropped precipitously because of declining birth rates, Cross told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which first reported the merger proposal last October.
Under the restructuring, students could still freely transfer from a twoyear campus in one regional cluster to any four-year UW institution outside the cluster, and no campus would be closed, Cross said.
In fact, some bachelor’s degree programs could be added at two-year campuses that currently don’t have a four-year campus within an easy commute.
“There are people in the region who may feel like a bachelor’s or master’s degree or a doctorate are out of the rhythm of their lives — simply out of reach,” UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said. “Soon, it will be right next door.”
While it may be a practical step in light of past state funding cuts and ongoing demographic changes, it’s the biggest shift for the UW System since its creation by the Legislature in 1971.
How will the UW System measure whether the merger is successful?
If transfers between the two-year and four-year campuses increase and become smoother; if financial stability is sustained, and if enrollment is stabilized through engagement with communities, Cross said.