Score one for the statewide University of Wisconsin system, its board of regents, students and faculty. They appear to have defeated a plan cooked up by Gov, Scott Walker and UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to give the Madison campus special status at the expense of the rest of the system -- and give Walker much more control.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is giving up on a plan that would split the flagship campus from a board that oversees the rest of the state's public universities.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said Friday that she didn't like the headlines Friday describing the proposal as dead, but she "accepted the improbability" that the plan would pass.
Martin said she was focused on proposals lawmakers are considering that might give UW campuses more autonomy over the operation of their campuses, but would keep UW-Madison as a part of the system that has not had a major change to its structure since it was formed about 40 years ago. "It would be unprecedented, obviously, to have that kind of progress," Martin said.
Spin, spin, spin again. Trying to claim victory when she and the governor have just got their heads handed to them after cooking up a secret deal behind the backs of the board of regents.
Background here in an earlier post explaining the plan and what the fight's all about.