UW opens its back door even wider

Just under a month ago, University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley agreed to a guaranteed transfer agreement into UW for select students coming out of Madison Area Technical College. As the Badger Herald reported back then:

Effective this fall, the “Transfer Contract” program is designed to eliminate the anxiety of transferring by guaranteeing transfer from MATC to UW for students who enroll as freshmen in the Liberal Arts Program and meet specified levels of academic achievement.

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Though the admissions process will remain the same for all students, the contract specifically details every requirement for guaranteed transfer, which includes earning 54 breadth credits and maintaining a 3.0 GPA

Several days later, The Badger Herald Editorial Board - of which, at the time, I was still a member – condemned the agreement as cheapening the brand of UW:

While Chancellor John Wiley’s sentiments about helping more people achieve higher paying jobs are noble, they fail to account for something even more important — namely the academic reputation of this institution.

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Regional technical schools are not appropriate for establishment as permanent feeder schools. Their purpose in the state’s educational flowchart is distinct from that of the 26 UW campuses around the state.

A sizable influx of unqualified entrants under the unlimited nature of the transfer agreement has the potential to dilute the value of a UW-Madison degree, which is unfair to all those students who have overcome the hurdles of an increasingly selective admissions process.

In the days following the editorial’s publication, Mr. Wiley publicly shared his disdain for the student newspaper’s stance. An informal debate of sorts sprung across the Madison campus, and the Herald’s news section even published a follow-up piece of sorts.

Well, today it seems Mr. Wiley is sticking to his guns. This afternoon, he will be announcing an identical transfer agreement with Nicolet College and, next month, yet another agreement can be expected, this time with Milwaukee Area Technical College. As a university release notes:

Like the pilot MATC agreement, the Nicolet contract allows a qualified student to begin his or her postsecondary education as a freshman in the University Transfer Program at Nicolet and two years later, be guaranteed admission as a transfer student at UW-Madison.

The new agreement eliminates uncertainty for Nicolet students who complete 54 credits in specified areas, earn a 3.0 GPA and apply as transfer students to UW-Madison.

An unlimited number of qualifying Nicolet students will be able to take part in the program every year, as UW-Madison has the capacity to serve additional transfer students at the upperclassman level.

At the heart of this can be found one of those rather unique moments where the interests of the UW administration – led by Mr. Wiley – and the interests of the UW student body gravitate toward polar ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, Mr. Wiley is charged with leading a public university built to benefit the state. This means graduating as many students as possible who will, in turn, go to work in the Wisconsin economy and help better the long-term interests of the Dairy State.

On the other hand, the already-admitted members of the UW student body – as well as alumni – have a vested interest in seeing their college remain an elite academic institution known for rigorous admission standards. The more a UW degree can speak to the inherent aptitude of its holder, the better a position that degree holder will find himself or herself in.

So is it really worth creating these guaranteed transfer agreements to merely ease the “anxiety” of community and technical college students who want into UW if the price that must be paid is the potential cheapening of a Madison degree? Few object to the notion of allowing transfer students in on a case by case basis – it is merely this ludicrous notion of a guarantee that irks the student body and alumni base.

The old cliché is that there are only two genuine guarantees in life: death and taxes. Let’s chalk the UW transfer pact up to a tax on the value of a Madison degree.