Members of the Wisconsin Board of Regents have expressed fear that Chancellor Biddy Martin's New Badger Partnership could be detrimental to the UW system.
Board of Regents member Tom Loftus said he thinks the potential separation could be harmful to the UW System.
""A proposal to remove UW-Madison from the UW System in the budget bill is a guarantee that we will return to the tribalism of the past when each campus and their legislators fought for their turf and decried any perceived advantage one campus might get that they did not,"" Loftus said in a letter to The Cap Times.
Loftus said Martin did not inform the Board of Regents about her plans for the New Badger Partnership.
News Editor of UW-Milwaukee's UWM Post Mike La Count said that Madison separating from the UW system would have severe effects on UWM.
He said now UW-Madison may compete with other UW schools for funding, whereas before they lobbied together for it.
This would affect UWM because UW-Madison and UWM are the only two UW System schools that offer doctoral programs, La Count said.
Additionally, costs not entirely covered by the state that were previously spread throughout the entire UW system will fall heavier upon UWM. One such cost stems from the GI Bill, which provides benefits to United States Veterans.
According to La Count, students at Milwaukee have not yet paid much attention to the New Badger Partnership. He thinks it will gain interest in the coming weeks.
La Count said he does not think the New Badger Partnership will inspire other UW System schools to break off from the system.
""They don't believe that having universities break off is good for the university system and education in general,"" La Count said.
Martin said in a press conference Thursday that this separation is imperative with probable budget cuts in the near future, and no concrete decisions have been made thus far.
