Four UW- Madison professors and a Wisconsin farmer discussed how splitting the Madison campus from the rest of the UW System would affect the Wisconsin Idea Wednesday.
Public affairs professor Dennis Dresang said the New Badger Partnership is necessary for UW-Madison to improve financially, to increase flexibility and to hire stronger faculty. Nothing in the proposed split would obstruct cooperation between UW-System schools and UW-Madison, Dresang said, thereby preserving the Wisconsin Idea.
Political science professor Katherine Cramer Walsh, however, agreed with an audience member who said citizens would view UW-Madison as an elitist school if it separated from the UW System. But she said the initially negative reactions would turn positive if the New Badger Partnership is successful.
""In the long term, if it is effective—if it lives up to the things we're being told it might be able to achieve for this campus—it could very well be the one great hope,"" Walsh said.
Farmer Jim Munsch said UW-Madison's public authority status would hurt his current agricultural model. Munsch currently applies sciences, such as biology and agrology, he has learned from UW-Madison experts to his farming.
""A farmer's job is to take the science from all of those disciplines and weave it into a picture on his land,"" Munsch said.
Under the current UW-System, any UW Extension member can direct a person to an expert at UW-Madison to help them solve an issue, according to Munsch.
A separated system could sever these connections, said Munsch, as the UW Extension would become a separate campus.
