UW schools to track professor hours, tie state aid to university’s performance, regents vote

State aid for Wisconsin state colleges will be performance based and professors hours will be tracked.

Those measures were nearly unanimously passed by the University of Wisconsin System regents at its monthly meeting Thursday. The lone no vote was Tony Evers, who is running as a Democrat for the 2018 election against Gov. Scott Walker.

The measures drew criticism from some, after Republicans ordered it through the state budget.

State aid based on performance would use several metrics to judge schools and distribute funding accordingly.

“It’s a little bit complex,” UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow said. “There are a lot of different measures that one could use.

“And, obviously, if you’re a research campus like Madison or Milwaukee, that’s different than a teaching campus like La Crosse.”

Metrics include improving student access, student progress toward completion, workforce contributions and efficiencies.

Also worked into the state budget was the requirement by the regents to develop a policy for tracking professors’ hours.

The budget ties state aid to UW schools based in part on how they stack up against each other in instructional time.

Gow thinks the professors are very dedicated to their work.

“People say ‘That’s only 12 hours. Gee not a lot of time,’ Gow said of a professor’s potential classroom time. “I would remind them there’s lots of other things that go into preparing for the classroom – advising students and doing research.”