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Nearly a quarter of UW-Extension faculty left in the 2018 fiscal year, the highest rate among all campuses or divisions within the University of Wisconsin System, according to an annual faculty turnover report presented Friday to the UW Board of Regents.

From July 1, 2017, through June 30, 45 of 188 faculty members retired or resigned, an anomaly from previous years when turnover fluctuated between 4 and 13 percent from 2011 through 2017, according to System turnover reports.

UW-Extension’s highest faculty turnover rate since 2011 came in the year when the System announced a major restructuring plan: to merge the state’s two-year UW Colleges with its four-year institutions, turning the 13 small schools into branch campuses of the larger universities, as a way to address declining student enrollment. Part of the plan includes eliminating the statewide office managing UW Colleges and Extension, which have already or will fold into either UW-Madison’s administration or UW System.