Faculty from around the state has been critical of these initiatives, saying they will result in a decreased emphasis on technical and occupational training. Some faculty members fear that the AAS degree changes and the baccalaureate rigor standard could result in programs being forced to eliminate occupational and technical credits.

Many faculty members also believe that forcing students into baccalaureate-level courses will lengthen time to degree and increase the number of students that leave before completing their general education requirements. Furthermore, implementation of the baccalaureate level standard will require a vast–and expensive–expansion of remedial services to meet the needs of under-prepared students. Without such services, faculty believes these initiatives are setting students up to fail.

The WTCS State Board established the taskforce after hearing compelling testimony from three WTCS faculty members.

Ellen Mei, a basic skills instructor at Waukesha County Technical College told the board the WTCS is meeting it mission.

"Each year, tens of thousands of students graduate from Wisconsin's technical colleges and go on to form the backbone of their communities and our workforce," she said. "It would not be in the best interest of our state to somehow upset the current successes of our system."

Michael Rosen, an economics instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College, testified that structural changes to the AAS degree and the effort to increase the rigor of WTCS general education courses threatens the important and unique role the WTCS plays in Wisconsin.

These changes are a "one-size-fits-all" solution that fails to recognize the divergent demand and needs of the WTCS student population," Rosen testified. "Simply stated, baccalaureate level general education coursework is not necessary for success in many of occupations we train students for."

Rosen told the board that many of the curricular changes currently being discussed are an effort to respond to the Legislature's call for increased transferability of credits. However, he pointed out that the overwhelming majority of WTCS students attend technical colleges to prepare for employment or update their job skills, not to prepare for continuing education.

"It is distressing that we continue to use students as pawns in legislative and academic power games." When formulating educational policies, Rosen said the board must remember the "thousands upon thousands of WTCS students who have no intention of transferring to a four-year institution."

Joe Lowndes, a genetics instructor a Madison Area Technical College, concluded the testimony by voicing the faculty's opposition to the top-down nature of decision-making processes in the technical colleges.

"All too often, however, WTCS faculty and staff are not treated as full partners at our colleges or at the system level," Lowndes told the board. "Such is the case with the proposed revisions to the AAS degree and the effort to increase the rigor of general education courses. Faculty and staff did not have a meaningful role in the development of these initiatives."

Lowndes encouraged the state board to establish a taskforce made up of faculty and other constituent groups to study the implications of the AAS degree changes and other curricular issues being considered.

"Ultimately, no one knows the needs of WTCS students better than the faculty and staff that interact with them on a daily basis," he said. "No on knows how curricular decisions will impact our students better than the classroom instructors we represent."

WTCS Board members present at the meeting responded favorably to the testimony and the request to establish the taskforce.

Mary Cuene, a state board member and faculty member at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, told her colleagues on the board that Mei, Rosen and Lowndes highlighted "legitimate concerns that we must address."

WTCS Board Chair Brent Smith and board members Phil Neuenfeldt, Nino Amato, Jose Vasquez, Roberta Gassman and Lorraine Carter echoed Cuene's sentiments.

Amato said he was "disappointed that faculty hasn't been included in the process."

Neuenfeldt expressed similar concerns. "You have to have your front line workers engaged. That goes a long way towards easing concerns," he told the board.

It is anticipated that the working group will meet several times before March 2005 when it will issue its recommendations to the full WTCS Board.

Faculty locals will be soliciting members' input over the next weeks and months. All faculty members are encouraged to voice their views on these important topics to and through their local unions.