This spring Gov. Scott Walker and former UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin proposed splitting UW-Madison off from the UW System. The plan was controversial, but it also was lost in the other contentious measures pushed through state government.The governor is currently assembling a task force to examine the structure of the UW System into the future. In all likelihood, the suggestion that UW-Madison and the UW System would be better off separate will resurface.
(Pleger is campus executive officer, dean and associate professor of anthropology and archaeology at UW-Baraboo/Sauk County.)