The Growth Agenda for Wisconsin will take precedence at the UW System Board of Regents' meeting this week as members discuss the document's proposed action steps.""
The regents established the Growth Agenda in response to Advantage Wisconsin, the strategic planning process that works to ""improve Wisconsin's competitive edge, nationally and globally,"" according to the Growth Agenda document.
""The overall Growth Agenda is not just to set a budget initiative, but an overall plan of economy development and job growth,"" UW System spokesperson David Giroux said.
According to Giroux, several of the 11 action steps are already occurring because of shared goals with other existing programs adopted by the UW System.
""[The action steps] are not budget updates of budget-funded initiatives,"" Giroux said. ""They are a separate set of things that are largely self-funded.""
According to Giroux, several of the action steps relate back to initiatives funded in the last biennial budget, but the programs are not the same.
The ""Transforming research into leading-edge jobs and economic vitality for Wisconsin"" step plans to form collaborations with industries to encourage undergraduate research, according to the UW System Growth Agenda for Wisconsin.
""[This step] ties back to a recent report by the Wisconsin Technology Council that talks about the real-world value in dollar terms of academic research and development,"" Giroux said.
Giroux said the ""Expanding the UW-Madison Connections Program"" step is already underway. According to the agenda, the step allows students to start their degree program at one of the other four-year colleges in Wisconsin and then transfer to UW-Madison.
""The program has already drawn interest from other four-year campuses,"" he said.
According to Giroux, other important items on the agenda include the possible approval by the Education Committee of a new bachelor of science degree in personal finance at UW-Madison and the Nursing Education Task Force Report.
The UW System Board of Regents will meet Feb. 5 and 6 on the UW-Madison campus.
