The Board of Regents discussed leadership timelines, test-optional admissions and a UW Health funding amendment at a Sept. 17 meeting.
Regents spoke about plans to confirm a University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor before Thanksgiving and establish a permanent test-optional admissions policy. They voted to amend a financial agreement between UW Hospital and Clinics Authority and the UW Medical Foundation.
When will we see new UW leadership?
Regent Amy Bogost said the board is “looking at” the week of Nov. 9 to bring in UW-Madison chancellor finalists for on-campus interviews, and they hope to select a chancellor before Thanksgiving.
Board of Regents Vice President Ashok Rai said the presidential search and screen committee tentatively plans to hold open forums for UW System president finalists Oct. 26 at UW-Parkside and Oct. 27 at UW-Madison. The Regents previously stated they plan to elect a president this fall. The board reviewed dozens of applications, Rai said.
Both searches’ planned conclusion dates fall near the gubernatorial elections taking place on Nov. 3.
The two higher educational leadership transitions of UW-Madison’s chancellor and the Universities of Wisconsin System president closely coincide with the gubernatorial election, contributing to uncertainty in the weeks ahead about the UW System’s educational future.
Board of Regents President Kyle Weatherly said both gubernatorial candidates — Democrat David Crowley and Republican Tom Tiffany — share the values in the Regents’ budget request and he hopes the outcome of the election will not significantly affect what parts of the request are approved.
“Everything they are advocating for, everything they are promising, tracks exactly to what we are proposing,” Weatherly said.
ACT, SAT admissions rules
A policy proposed by the Education Committee would make admissions across the 13 four-year UW System universities permanently test-optional.
The UW System relied on a UW-Madison study to conclude that ACT and SAT test scores were a worse predictor of college completion than high school GPA. The study was conducted by UW-Madison’s Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR), and used undergraduate applicant data.
“UW institutions are competing for enrollment with other institutions regionally and nationally in an environment where more than 2,000 institutions are still test optional or test blind,” Julie Amon, Universities of Wisconsin Administration Associate Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success, said.
Amon said the ACT and SAT-optional admissions, along with the UW System’s direct admit program and the Wisconsin Guarantee to UW-Madison for students in the top 5% of their graduating class, are “designed to mitigate admission barriers for our prospective students,” Amon said.
Neither Direct Admit Wisconsin nor the Wisconsin Guarantee use standardized test scores for admits from Wisconsin high schools. Applicants who are homeschooled must submit high-percentile ACT scores or be a National Merit Scholarship finalist to qualify for either program.
90% of U.S. four-year colleges and universities are test-optional or test-free for students applying for Fall 2027 admission, according to FairTest.
“We are living in a context where pretty much everything is test optional,” Amon said. “The ones that you have seen swing back in the news recently are largely the Ivy League and a few other selective institutions.”
Banning ACT and SAT admissions has created conflict among faculty and administrators for universities across the country. More than 2,300 faculty members across the University of California system recently signed an open letter asking the universities to require SAT and ACT math scores for STEM majors, claiming new admits are unprepared for college-level coursework.
“This proposed change in policy empowers students who pursue the traditional admission pathway to a UW institution to make the best decision for themselves based on their own unique experiences, educational journeys, and academic goals,” Amon said.
UW Health funding policy
The Regents voted unanimously to pass a new resolution amending an agreement between UW Hospital and Clinics Authority and the UW Medical Foundation. The amendment aims to support guaranteed academic funding to the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) from the UW Hospital system, and increasing “predictability of that funding,” as well as determining academic priorities for both units and aligning the UW Hospital funding model with academic health industry trends.
The new amendments come as a result of a collective review by former Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, the CEO of UW Hospital and Clinic Authority, and the Dean of the SMPH in 2024, according to the business and finance meeting book.
“The [new] agreement has guardrails that protect both the School of Medicine and Public Health and the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority if the financial outlook of either becomes more problematic,” Rob Cramer, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration said. “Right now, it's not really structured how that would happen.”
A report written by Urban Impact Advisors this February and announced by the Office for the Vice Chancellor for Research this April identified strengthening the partnership between UW-Madison and UW Health as a key action to increase the university’s competitiveness, noting UW Health has historically received $250 to 350 million less in medical school research funding annually than peer schools.
“UW’s major competitive challenge, vis-a-vis the other great public research universities of America, is the relatively low level of medical school research,” the report read. “None of the very top tier medical research institutions can achieve greatness without a very large flow of resources from clinical practice to research.”
The report identified UW-Madison’s partnership with UW Hospitals and Clinics as a challenge facing the university, saying School of Medicine and Public Health leaders “expressed concern that the health system does not view the academic excellence of university physicians as central to its brand or long-term strategy.”
Stakeholders pointed out the financial size of the health system’s SMPH funding as a problem. The report recommended increasing “sustainable revenue” to SMPH and connecting clinical and academic missions across UW Health.
Sonia Bendre is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. You can reach her at sonia.bendre@dailycardinal.com.
