Once the merger is complete, UW Colleges faculty and staff would be considered employees of their campus’ partner four-year school.

The same goes for students — those attending what is now UW-Rock County would be considered students of UW-Whitewater’s Rock County branch. They would still be charged the two-year schools’ lower tuition rates.

Merging the institutions will bring the resources of the four-year universities to the smaller colleges, Cross said. Universities could, for instance, offer new programs that would allow students to earn bachelor’s degrees at the branch campuses, where previously they could only receive associates’ degrees, he said.

Services such as financial aid and advising — which UW Colleges moved into regional hubs under another restructuring plan in 2015 that followed state budget cuts — would be managed by the college’s partner university.

Cross said some administrative positions would be eliminated, though he declined to estimate how many could be affected, saying many of those decisions will be worked out by the two- and four-year schools as the merger takes effect. It will likely take much longer than the July 2018 effective date for the merger to be fully implemented, he said.