MADISON - The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents by a split vote moved Thursday to merge financially struggling two-year campuses across the state with nearby four-year campuses to avoid forced closures down the road.

The two-year UW Colleges, which have seen precipitous drops in enrollment since 2010, could stay afloat another 24 to 30 months as-is before some would be forced to close, UW System President Ray Cross told regents.

But putting off the inevitable just prolongs anxiety and uncertainty on the campuses, Cross said.

By a split voice vote, the regents decided to begin figuring out the nitty-gritty details of how the major restructuring will happen, effective July 1. Faculty and student groups on campuses, a handful of Democratic lawmakers, and a couple of regents had asked that the vote be delayed at least until the regents' December meeting to allow more campus and public input.

But Cross said time was of the essence.

He vowed to return to the regents every month until plans are finalized by campuses and UW System administrators to brief them on details.

"At any point, you can say, 'We don't like this,' " Cross said. "But let's get us moving on this process and surface problems we need to think about."

Already, the UW's 13 two-year campuses have seen a 32% enrollment drop since 2010. That's a loss of millions of dollars in tuition revenue. Enrollments are projected to continue dropping at outstate campuses, as rural populations shift to urban centers.

Cross told reporters that jobs would not be lost in the immediate future because the restructuring would be lengthy and complicated. Not everything will have to be decided by next July, he said. How employees are paid and how campus finances and student services are merged and managed will be priorities, he said.

Regents Janice Mueller and Tony Evers, the state superintendent of public instruction, cast dissenting votes.

Mueller, a former state auditor, said she wanted to study the matter more and ensure fiduciary responsibility. Evers, who is running for governor, said: "A bad process usually leads to bad policy." He also said there were people in Wisconsin "who feel they've been left behind."

Wednesday night, Cross told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the decision could not wait: "Regardless of how long we study the facts, they will not change. Doing nothing is not an option."

The proposal Cross unexpectedly unveiled last month will create regional UW clusters with two-year colleges becoming branches of four-year campuses.

RELATED:Merger would keep UW System's two-year campuses afloat despite steep enrollment losses

The UW System had four choices, Cross said: Do nothing; expect to close several UW College campuses within 24 to 30 months; merge the two-year campuses with the state's technical colleges, which would be complicated by different funding mechanisms; or integrate UW Colleges and UW-Extension into the existing UW structure.

No campus would close, and a UW presence could be maintained in communities across the state, under the plan approved by the regents, Cross said. When students graduate from a two-year campus, their degree generally will carry the name of the partner four-year campus instead of the two-year UW, a rebranding of the UW Colleges.

Cross and others said it's important that the two-year colleges maintain their identity and access missions within communities they serve.

Within hours of the meeting ending, chancellors of four-year campuses began sending out group emails and news releases, welcoming their new partners and outlining the process for moving forward.

Theoretically, the proposed merger could ease student transfers between UW's two-year and four-year campuses, and make a bachelor's degree less costly if students spend their first two years at a two-year campus that charges about half as much tuition.

Students will still be able to freely transfer from a four-year campus in one regional cluster to a four-year UW institution outside the cluster, Cross has said.

UW-Extension's various roles will move under the umbrellas of UW-Madison and the UW System under the Cross proposal.

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Cross explained that the merger proposal was not intended to be detailed but to provide a starting point. He promised that students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders would have a voice as details are worked out.

Some bachelor degree programs could be added at two-year campuses that don't have a four-year campus within an easy commute. Faculty from four-year campuses could divide their time between campuses, he said.

Cross decided which campuses to pair in the proposed reorganization. In some cases, he cited proximity. In other cases, he said he considered pairing institutions with similar missions. UW-Barron County and UW-Eau Claire both have a liberal arts mission, while UW-Stout is the state's polytechnic university, for example.

As often is the case, the devil is in the details. And so is the conflict.

UW-Stout's student government asked Cross to reconsider making the two-year UW-Barron County campus in Rice Lake a branch of UW-Eau Claire; they want it to be a satellite of UW-Stout instead.

UW-Stout has a longer history with the Barron County campus, dating back to the mid-1960s — before the creation of the current UW System in the early 1970s, UW-Stout students pointed out. The Barron County campus opened as a campus of the former Stout State University.

About 25% of transfer students to UW-Stout now come from UW Barron County, and there's some concern those students may be nudged instead to UW-Eau Claire.

The Sheboygan City Council also doesn't like Cross' choice of partnering UW-Sheboygan County with UW-Green Bay. City leaders instead want the two-year college to be managed by UW-Milwaukee, which has a research mission and is closer to the Sheboygan campus than is UW-Green Bay, the Sheboygan Press reported Wednesday.