The UW System Board of Regents passed a controversial proposal Friday to rename the UW-Madison Medical School to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Representatives from UW-Milwaukee as well as Tom Barrett, Milwaukee mayor, contested the proposal on the grounds that the Milwaukee campus is better suited for a school of public health.
The name change will not be effective until Nov. 11, the date of the next Regent meeting, as the Regents want the UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee medical schools to open a dialogue about collaboration, according to a UW System statement.
\We were comfortable with where the university was heading but we wanted to be responsible to Milwaukee and we want them to talk and if we can help them, we want to do it,"" Board Present David Walsh said.
According to Walsh, Milwaukee has little chance of forming a school of public health.
""They have no money, no building, no faculty, no relationships with the medical school-they don't want one,"" he said.
Walsh said the UW-Medical school has been working for years to become a school of public health and added the name change would undoubtedly take place.
""When we really drilled down on it, we discovered that we really are a school of public health like we said we would be-and we're serving the public with the Blue Cross money and we've got all sorts of initiatives,"" he said.
Walsh also announced his intent to form a Regent committee that will produce a policy to carry out more efficient discipline measures for UW System employees.
""We are going to address those issues and we are going to make whatever adjustments are necessary to make sure that we promptly and efficiently address instances of felony conduct while at the same time affording everyone their due process rights,"" Walsh said.
The Regents also voted on a proposal to regulate UW System employee sick leave by requiring medical proof of illness from workers after five consecutive sick days.
