By Kelly Meyerhofer
Timothy Nixon’s transfer from the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc to UW-Green Bay in 1982 was anything but smooth. His chemistry credits didn’t carry over, even though both campuses used the same book for the class. His meteorology class didn’t count either. He had to retake algebra and trigonometry to fulfill the math portion of his general education requirements. The experience cost him, both in time and money.
In the more than 40 years since Nixon transferred schools, the Universities of Wisconsin, also known as the UW system, has had no uniform general education requirements across its universities – until now.
The UW Board of Regents, of which Nixon is a member, unanimously approved a new policy Nov. 19 ensuring credits for core general education requirement courses are transferable between universities.
The state budget passed this summer increased the UW system’s budget by $256 million but came with strings, including requiring all core general education courses be transferable between UW campuses and satisfy general education requirements at the receiving institution by fall 2026.
“This should have been done a long time ago,” Regent Karen Walsh said at the meeting. “Do we like, as a board, to be backed into a corner with money hanging over our heads to get it done? No. No one would have preferred to do it that way, but unfortunately that’s the position that we’re in.”
Campus autonomy under threat?
The board’s approval came despite objections from at least seven of the 13 Faculty Senate bodies. UW-Madison and UWM scheduled their votes for after the regents meeting.
The Senate resolutions calling for faculty control passed in overwhelming numbers. They said the process was rushed, lacked enough faculty input and went beyond what state law required by proposing a new 36-credit framework with six areas of study.
“This is the biggest curricular change in the 20 years I’ve been here, and it’s not even close,” UW-River Falls professor Neil Kraus said. “There is near universal opposition to this proposal. No one is defending it. The line is ‘We have to do it.’”
Individual universities currently set their own curriculum, the product of years of work by faculty. Requirements vary across campuses in areas of study and number of credits. The approach helps differentiate universities and tailors courses to their specific student populations, said Natalia Taft, a UW-Parkside professor and secretary of AFT-Wisconsin, a campus union.
“To cast it aside for this one-size-fits-all curriculum negates the work that’s been done and ties the hands of schools,” she said. “UW system has insisted their homogenous structure is flexible enough to allow campuses to fit classes into categories, but dictating the structure alone is dictating curriculum, and I think that’s a dangerous precedent to be setting.”
UW system spokesperson Mark Pitsch said faculty were consulted numerous times through campus meetings, conversations with faculty representatives and faculty representation on the group developing the policy.
Regents call for monitoring of new general education curriculum policy
Several regents had qualms about the policy, from how it originated in the Legislature to the speed in which it came about and the work it creates on campuses to comply in time for next school year. They asked UW system officials for reports on how the new policy is working.
“Did this actually make a difference?” Regent Ashok Rai asked. “Are we surveying students that have transferred? Was it easier?”
About 2,400 students transferred between UW campuses in 2024-25, accounting for less than 2% of total enrollment across the UW system.
But to those affected, it can be a frustrating process. UW-Oshkosh student Desmond Adongo, who serves a two-year student term on the board, talked to a student who had to sit through the same course after transferring to UW-Oshkosh because the course name carried a different title than at UW-Green Bay.
“This is an issue near and dear to my heart,” said Nixon, the regent who repeated classes because his credits wouldn’t transfer. “I am shocked – shocked – that 40 years after I went through that we are still having these conversations about the ease of student transfer among our campuses.”
Kelly Meyerhofer has covered higher education in Wisconsin since 2018. Contact her at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.
Source: New UW gen ed policy may ease transfer process. But will it erode campus autonomy?