Following Gov. Scott Walker’s call for a $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System for the 2015-’17 biennium, southeastern Wisconsin UW campuses are busy preparing to meet the worst-case scenarios.
If the governor’s proposal moves forward as is, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could lose $40 million, and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha could lose $7 million over the biennium. That represents 6.5 percent of UWM’s operating budget and 8 percent of UW-Parkside’s.
“Everything is on the table in terms of absorbing this,” said UWM chancellor Mark Mone.
UWM implemented a temporary hold on discretionary travel, raises and promotions in light of the proposed cuts, and a budget planning taskforce has asked campus units to develop budget scenarios that reflect 5 percent and 10 percent cuts.
Personnel are a “tremendous” part of the budget, Mone said, but options regarding potential layoffs and furloughs will be made carefully and methodically in order to protect core areas of student success, research and community engagements.
UWM may also absorb some of the cuts through larger class sizes, according to Mone, but an increase in tuition is not likely at any UW institution as the budget plan calls for tuition to remain frozen through the next biennial budget.
Mone said asking faculty to teach an additional course each semester, as Walker has suggested, is also not a probable option because of the research expectations put on UWM faculty.
“To say faculty should teach another class is at odds with the larger mission we’re trying to accomplish here,” he said, adding that many faculty members currently work 45 to 60 hours per week.
When it comes time to make final decisions on the cuts, Mone said they will not be made across the board, but they will preserve and protect the institution’s two overarching goals of educating students and providing research to the community.
At UW-Parkside, chancellor Deborah Ford said the instability of funding is one of the institution’s biggest challenges.
“I’m in year six (as chancellor at UW-Parkside) and, unfortunately, every year I’ve been here there’s been some reduction in our state support,” Ford said. “This is the largest proposed reduction, I think ever, in terms of state support.”
Ford said UW-Parkside is looking at “different scenarios” right now as she considers it to currently be in an information-gathering phase, but the priority in addressing the budget shortfall is to minimize disruption to the student experience inside and outside of the classroom.
While Ford and Mone wait for the next steps in the state budget process, they are doing everything they can to raise awareness of their institutions’ value to students and the community and to explain the consequences of the potential cuts.
They have met with almost two dozen legislators since Walker’s proposal was announced, and UW-Parkside recently hosted UW System president Ray Cross on campus.
In other advocating efforts, Mone has sent emails to more than 60,000 alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members asking them to advocate for UWM. UWM also shares on a weekly basis stories of the school’s impact for its advocates to share on social media.
Additionally, UWM is hosting a series of open budget town hall meetings to keep the campus and community informed.
Both Mone and Ford want to make known the importance of their institutions in preparing the future talent pipeline.
For instance, Mone said Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce data shows that about 100,000 more employees will be needed in southeastern Wisconsin by 2023. With UWM graduating, on average, 5,500 students each year, he said a strong UWM is capable of accounting for half of those employees in the next nine years.
As for UW-Parkside, Ford said 70 percent of its students come from Kenosha and Racine and 72 percent of graduates stay in the region.
Regardless of the impending budget fallout, Mone and Ford say they are continuing to focus on their schools’ missions.
“Of course we’re worried about continuing to meet the needs of students and the community with fewer resources, but the most important thing we need to keep our focus on is what we do every day: provide quality education for students,” Ford said.
Mone added, “We’re going to do our part to address this budgetary need, and we will stay as committed as possible to keep our educational experience, quality research and economic development engagements intact.”
