UW System President Wants Board Of Regents To Set Performance Standards

University of Wisconsin President Ray Cross is asking legislators to allow the Board of Regents to set system performance standards.

Under Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget, UW System campuses’ performance would be judged based on 18 different standards with only two set by UW officials. Officials say the majority of those standards should be set by university regents.

Nick Hillman, an education policy researcher at the UW-Madison, said having baseline measures for all campuses lessens the impact government funding could have.

“Fundamentally, you want to design a system that is responsive to the unique missions and the unique priorities of the institution if you want this to actually make a difference on campuses,” he said. “So, judging a campus for something that their mission isn’t necessarily designed to do would be a little bit unfair.”

Hillman said having different standards for each campus would be the best outcome.

“I think that mission differentiation would be a win-win for both the system and the Legislature,” he said. “I think that the Legislature wants to have some of this pressure on the UW System in terms of showing outcomes and showing performance.”

Hillman said historically approaches that start within the system and then move to the Legislature tend to the most effective.

Walker’s budget sets aside nearly $42 million in performance funding.