Wisconsin is a great state, in part, because its people have always held that tradition and innovation are complementary values, not competing forces. The evidence is everywhere. Family dairy farms coexist on our modern landscape with wind turbines. Rural schools remain our communities’ crossroads, yet speed-of-light technology connects their classrooms to all corners of the world. We honor our heritage of working with our hands, but we welcome the chance to sharpen minds and manufacturing skill – incorporating lasers and Lean thinking into sustainable workplaces.

This equal appreciation of tradition and innovation is at the heart of the Wisconsin Idea Partnership. This is why it is the best solution for higher education in Wisconsin and our challenged economy. We ask the public, our legislature and our Governor to accept it as the alternative to the proposed New Badger Partnership within the Governor’s biennial budget.

In the late 1960s, one factor that drove Wisconsin to create the highly-regarded UW System was the expensive and often unproductive competition developing between institutions. Campuses considered creation of duplicative colleges of medicine, law and engineering and mulled ambitions for many Division One athletic programs that would have financially hamstrung Chancellors and their universities for decades. It also would have distracted them from their core mission of providing the citizens of this state an affordable, world class education within their borders. We cannot revert to that atmosphere. We cannot foster fracture when we have spent so many years pioneering a UW System that saves taxpayers millions of dollars a year by centralizing administrative functions, avoiding unnecessary program duplication and promoting each university’s distinctiveness.

The Wisconsin Idea Partnership, detailed in documents at UW System’s Wisconsin Idea Partnership website, preserves the tradition and power of a one-for-all, all-for-one unified UW System. It also spreads the kind of 21^st Century business strategies and efficiencies we teach many of our students. This plan enables us to better practice what we preach.

Ready for transformation

The Wisconsin Idea Partnership arrives at the right time for the UW System. Its campuses, including UW Oshkosh, are once again confronting tremendous financial challenges amid the Great Recession. At UW Oshkosh, our faculty and staff are facing life-changing compensation reductions, reaching 5 percent this biennium and a projected 8 percent next biennium. The Governor’s budget proposes our students endure another, at-least 11 percent total tuition increase over the next two years. Our campus community is working collaboratively to close our nearly $10 million share of the UW System’s more-than $250 million budget shortfall. Additionally, university employees system-wide will save the state $90 million in tax funding through employee compensation reductions. It is another major sacrifice.

Cuts to all campuses are significant, none lesser in impact than the other. So, the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, as proposed, will uniformly sharpen the business toolkit for the entire UW fleet. It will preserve accountability while giving our campuses’ leadership the power to locally innovate operations. We are ready for the plan and the change it promises.

Even without the Wisconsin Idea Partnership’s provisions, we have accomplished extraordinary things (UW Oshkosh Strategic Plan Update & 2009-2010 Annual Report) in the last decade. UW Oshkosh has increased access and boosted enrollment by more than 2,000 students at the state’s third-largest university. We have improved the quality of student experience in spite of budgetary shortfalls over several challenging biennia. We have completed a $20 million, comprehensive capital campaign over goal and ahead of schedule. Since 2000, we have enhanced several campus facilities after decades without major investment and renovations. We have completed renovation of Halsey Science Center. We are getting ready to open the new Sage Hall academic building which will free up space for renovation of Clow Social Science Center for high-impact educational programs.

Despite economic challenge, UW Oshkosh faculty, students and staff have found ways to enhance our campus for the good of our students and the entire UW System. We have proven we are more than ready for the additional flexibilities the Wisconsin Idea Partnership will bring.

Flexibilities in focus

For years, UW System leaders and chancellors have talked about these changes as “flexibilities.” Let me detail what these specifically are and what the Wisconsin Idea Partnership would do on the ground at UW Oshkosh to help us save and reallocate millions of dollars a year:

• Enabling management of all program revenue and gift and grant funded projects: UW Oshkosh has a new residence hall under construction at a cost of $34 million. The actual construction cost is about $27 million. We are currently charged a 4 percent fee for project management by the state, the equivalent of $1.08 million. With Wisconsin Idea Partnership flexibilities, UW Oshkosh could project manage the construction work on such a large project for 1 percent of cost, or $270,000. That equals a savings of $810,000. Beyond that, such a flexibility would give our campus greater power to leverage private giving, demonstrating to funders our commitment to maximizing investment in the bricks and mortar of building projects.
• Allowing purchase of materials at best cost available: Conservatively, on an expenditure of up to $10 million for everyday supplies and materials necessary to run a campus of more than 13,600 students and 1,700 employees, we could save at least 5 percent which would equate to a savings for UW Oshkosh of up to $500,000 a year. Meanwhile, more of our local companies would have a better chance of competing for and garnering our business.
• Promoting block grant efficiencies: By allowing UW Oshkosh to receive a block grant, including funding for utilities, fringe benefits and all other GPR funds, we could better manage and incentivize conservation of energy in the campus community, for example. From utilities alone, by rewarding employees and students for minimizing use of electric lights or by further conserving our energy consumption as a whole, we conservatively estimate UW Oshkosh could save up to $500,000.
• Streamlining hiring process for classified employees: Current standards often require our campus to interview many more candidates than units need to adequately generate a diverse, inclusive pool of talent. This prolongs the hiring process and prevents a timelier, less expensive selection. By giving UW Oshkosh greater control over hiring, our estimate is that we could cut costs and save at least $50,000 in the classified staff employee process.
• Permitting negotiation of telecom contracts: If UW Oshkosh were able to negotiate its own contract for telecom services for VOIP vs. standard line service from AT&T, we could save another, approximately $500,000.

The math is eye-opening. In just the Wisconsin Idea Partnership flexibility examples above, the total saved and able to be reallocated on campus could very easily reach $2.5 million in just one year. That is a powerful sum, considering the fact that every $1 million bears the potential to create 5,000 more classroom seats at UW Oshkosh. There are still more opportunities to achieve even greater savings every year.

Tradition of transparency

Beyond these bottom-line considerations, the Wisconsin Idea Partnership is also a win-win for our state in its embrace of transparency. It is proposed in the open. It is built on accountability for decades to come.

Open government is one of the most cherished principles in Wisconsin. Citizens have a right and responsibility to be informed about government dealings and the management of their investment in a higher education system that has long benefitted their families and communities.

The supporters of the Wisconsin Idea Partnership have opposed the rival New Badger Partnership and its proposal to split off UW Madison (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 18) from the UW System for many reasons. However, we cannot overemphasize its fundamental break from our Wisconsin tradition of transparency and accountability.

First, our flagship institution’s departure from UW System was an idea that was initially conceived behind closed doors, delaying the greater community conversation its resultant hundreds of pages of provisions and legislative changes deserved. Secondly, the very nature of the proposal creates an autonomous, UW Madison oversight board, one that figures to be politically connected in ways that could disadvantage the UW system’s other four-year campuses, colleges and extension. That notion, too, offends the tradition of public accountability in Wisconsin. To what degree would this board be accountable to the public that funds it?

Also concerning is a small army of lobbyists funded by third-party groups that has been assembled to influence the New Badger Partnership’s passage in the state Legislature.

The Wisconsin Idea Partnership will not take this course. We believe our plan stands on its own merits. Your UW System chancellors spend a fraction of their time meeting with legislators to explain our goals and strategic plans. Our dealings are representative and transparent. We advocate for and speak on behalf of campus faculty, staff and student leadership to better serve them and the people of Wisconsin. We have their mandate, not third-party lobbying money.

The supporters of the Wisconsin Idea Partnership are very encouraged to see Governor Walker’s receptivity to further discussing this plan (Wisconsin Public Radio, March 26) – the right plan — in the open, with Wisconsin legislators and citizens.

Two actions are necessary to help the UW System and its unified fleet of campuses persevere:

• Give our employees the credit they deserve and allow our universities to apply their compensation reductions toward closure of the $250 million UW System budget shortfall. (Chancellor Wells on ‘forever,’ ‘for now’ of state budget challenge, March 17).
• Include the Wisconsin Idea Partnership in the biennial budget, both to preserve the time-honored strengths of quality education, access and affordability provided by the state’s UW System and to allow all of the campuses in the System the flexibilities they need to become more strategic, innovative and efficient for generations to come.

This is what is best for the prosperity of Wisconsin for now and forever.