Resolution in Opposition to a Merger between UW-Waukesha & Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC)

WHEREAS, There have been discussions for several years amongst political leaders to merge UW-Waukesha with different institutions, from UW-Milwaukee to Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), with the stated goal of making it easier for students to transfer credits to other institutions and to lower overall costs; and

WHEREAS, The fight for an earlier merger between UW-Waukesha and UW-Milwaukee ended after a study found that the merger would increase the average operating cost for UW-Waukesha from $10 million per year to over $25 million per year; and

WHEREAS, Recently, there have been several listening sessions held, open to the public, concerning a potential merger between UW-Waukesha and WCTC; and

WHEREAS, Both University of Wisconsin-Waukesha and Waukesha County Technical College provide great, unique benefits to the state of Wisconsin while having very different educational missions; and

WHEREAS,The majority of students enrolled at UW-Waukesha want to transfer to a baccalaureate institution, which our curriculum must therefore align with; and

WHEREAS, Transferability, or the authority to transfer credits to a comprehensive or research institution from UW-Waukesha, is currently not a problem for students enrolled at UW-Waukesha; and

WHEREAS, Making transferability easier from WCTC to other campuses can be accomplished without merging it with another campus, such as UW-Waukesha; and

WHEREAS, Merging UW-Waukesha and WCTC into a single institution would severely dilute the individual strengths of each campus, while significantly altering the high academic standards of UW-Waukesha, and hurting the local and state community; and

WHEREAS, University of Wisconsin is a brand that is recognized and respected nationwide for academic excellence, and stripping UW-Waukesha of that title and affiliation would hurt the campus, the local economy and the value of the degree; and

WHEREAS, The evaluation of credit equivalences between institutions should always be left up to professors and faculty, who understand the curriculum of their respective disciplines more thoroughly than anyone else, and who are required to determine credit equivalences between institutions by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the UW-Waukesha Student Government Association, as the officially recognized voice of the 2000+ students at UW-Waukesha, oppose all of the following: any merger between UW-Waukesha and WCTC, any result that strips UW-Waukesha of the University of Wisconsin brand, and any result that strips UW-Waukesha faculty from the process of credit equivalence between institutions; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution be distributed to The Waukesha County Freeman, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Waukesha County Republican Party, the Waukesha County Democratic Party, UW-Waukesha Dean Harry Muir, UW-Colleges Chancellor Ray Cross, UW-System President Kevin Reilly, State Representative Paul Farrow, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, UW-Waukesha Collegium Chair Professor Margaret Hankenson, WCTC President Barbara Prindiville, Waukesha County Business Alliance President Suzanne Kelly, Carroll University President Doug Hastad, the WCTC Student Government, and all members of the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors: Dave Falstad, Ted Rolfs, Robert Hutton, James Dwyer, James Jeskewitz, Janel Brandtjen, Patricia Haukohl, Thomas Schellinger, James Heinrich, David Swan, Fritz Ruf, Peter Wolff, Paul Decker, Michael Inda, Pamela Meyer, Duane Paulson, Jean Tortomasi, Kathleen Cummings, Steven Wimmer, Pauline Jaske, William Zabrowski, Peter Gundrum, Daniel Draeger, Walter Kolb, and Gilbert Yerke.

Recommendation

That the above resolution be accepted and acknowledged, speaking on behalf of 2000+ students of the community and coming from the officially recognized voice of the student body. If there is a desire to increase transferability between campuses or institutions, it is recommended to governing bodies that the focus be geared towards empowering faculty and the UW Administration to promote further communication between such campuses or institutions, given the expertise of the faculty in their respective disciplines knows the content of each course, and therefore would know how each class relates to another.