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The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce is officially backing the University of Wisconsin System’s Wisconsin Idea Partnership, and its action may be starting a ripple-effect of similar endorsements around the state.

On April 11, the board of the more-than 1,000-member Oshkosh Chamber approved a resolution supporting the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, a state budget proposal that would preserve a unified University of Wisconsin System while giving each of its universities, colleges and the UW extension new cost-cutting, efficiency-boosting management flexibilities.

Since then, Chambers of Commerce in Wausau and other communities have endorsed or are considering endorsement of similar measures praising the Wisconsin Idea Partnership and provisions that give UW System campuses greater ability to consider local businesses eager to compete as university suppliers and service providers.

The proposal is an alternative to the New Badger Partnership, which, as outlined in Gov. Scott Walker’s biennial budget, splits off UW Madison from the UW System and grants that campus alone public authority status and the many management flexibilities that go along with it.

The Oshkosh Chamber’s resolution acknowledges the economic value of higher education in Wisconsin and the need for greater procurement and business-decision autonomy at each UW System campus. Empowering UW Oshkosh with the ability to more easily procure goods and services, from office supplies to paper products, for example, would open a door to greater local competition for university business and competitive-cost, high-quality goods and services, the resolution states.

“The Chamber believes the Wisconsin Idea Partnership – as advanced by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System – is a solid foundation for action and that the proposal includes a series of changes to state law that are long overdue and ready for immediate enactment without further study,” the Oshkosh Chamber’s resolution states. “Specifically, the Wisconsin Idea Partnership: Couples desired management and operational flexibilities within the existing governance framework that has served and advanced our state’s educational and economic interests; and, Preserves the strength of a unified state system of higher education while empowering all UW System institutions to compete in an open marketplace for supplies, materials and human resource talent.”

Chancellor Richard H. Wells

UW Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said the Oshkosh Chamber’s resolution is a strong endorsement from business and community leaders who are neighbors in address, but not necessarily in commerce, with the state’s third-largest, second-fastest growing university. (Click to read Chancellor Wells’ statement: ‘Campus meets Commerce; Are we open for local businesses?’).

“There are entrepreneurs, family business owners and CEOs whose companies have, for decades, been miles or even blocks away from campuses in Oshkosh, Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Whitewater and all the other great UW System university communities,” Wells said. “Yet, they haven’t had the unfettered shot they deserve at competing for campus commerce. The Oshkosh Chamber’s endorsement of the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, I believe, expresses exactly what business leaders in each of those communities deserve – a fairer, inclusive, less-bureaucratic opportunity to compete.”

Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce President and CEO John Casper said the Wisconsin Idea Partnership is best to give local campuses the power to welcome more local companies into an open, fairer competition for university business, “a true win-win for Wisconsin.” He urged other Chambers of Commerce and similar organizations around the state to support the proposal.

“The campuses, and the taxpayers who support our campuses, will benefit from the broader array of services, supplies and cost options,” Casper said. “Local businesses will benefit from the new, legitimate opportunity to become university vendors. The Wisconsin Idea Partnership will have a direct impact on not just Oshkosh’s, but every state community’s, economic vitality, protecting and expanding job opportunities within the local businesses that are so vital a component of Wisconsin’s economy.”

Read more — Statements from Chancellor Wells on UW Oshkosh Today: