UW-Madison to close Land Tenure Center

The Land Tenure Center (LTC), established in 1962 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus to study and address land, poverty and environmental issues in developing countries, will be closed down as a free-standing administrative unit as of July 1.

The center’s offices have been housed in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), and on May 14, the college’s Academic Planning Council let stand a conditional decision it made last fall to disband the LTC as an independent unit.

“The decision to close down the center’s office was made only after a lengthy and thorough review by a committee made up of faculty and staff from across campus,” says CALS Dean Elton Aberle. “It was a difficult decision that we had to make in context of the budget difficulties facing the college and all other campus units involved in land-tenure scholarship.”

For the past 10 years, the college has provided about $200,000 a year base funding for LTC activities. Aberle points out that closing the center will save the college’s budget that amount.

“The LTC has contributed greatly to the understanding of land use and related issues in developing countries,” Aberle says. “It has helped developing countries solve problems and create better lives for their citizens. And, the students whom faculty members trained through its projects have gone on to become international development leaders.”

Aberle also notes that the end of the LTC as an independent administrative unit does not mean the end of faculty and staff contributions to the issues of land tenure around the world. “Such studies and the student training that occurred both within and outside the LTC itself will continue as individual faculty members choose to pursue them,” he explains.

In addition to affiliated faculty, the LTC currently has 12 administrative and research staff working on obtaining and administering grants, operating a Web site and library, and conducting a variety of outreach activities.

As the state budget crisis resulted in pressures to reduce expenses, CALS was forced to withdraw its base support for the LTC. Although attempts were made to identify campus-wide sources of funding for the center, other deans were unable to divert resources to the LTC at a time when they are faced with having to cut back on programs.

Layoff notices were issued to LTC staff in December. The college has been working with affected employees in an attempt to find alternative job opportunities, Aberle says.