The University of Wisconsin System has asked the governor for $110 million to fund COVID-19 testing and personal protective equipment, as campuses look to open this fall and the number of coronavirus cases in Wisconsin continues to rise.
Noted: According to data presented to the Board of Regents at the beginning of the month, the system anticipates a total loss of more than $100 million through the end of the summer, even taking into account the emergency federal funding they’ve received.
The UW System will receive $20 million of the funding, coming just as UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee announced their plans to reopen for the fall Wednesday.
The money will help offset the cost of technology infrastructure, personal protective equipment and other expenses, UW System President Ray Cross said, but said more help will be needed.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross is asking Gov. Tony Evers and state lawmakers for a line of credit, fewer regulations and the ability to begin classes early in the fall.
Tuesday, UW System President Ray Cross sent a letter to the state legislature and Gov. Tony Evers which would allow the system to move the start date of the semester.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross asked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and legislative leaders Wednesday to consider temporary changes for UW campuses in response to COVID-19, including potentially starting the fall semester early.
More than half of the $70 million in state agency spending cuts ordered by Gov. Tony Evers will be to University of Wisconsin campuses in the first move to stabilize state finances during the coronavirus pandemic.
University of Wisconsin System leaders are working on safety protocols that could enable students to return to campus if the coronavirus pandemic stretches into fall, system President Ray Cross told regents Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System leaders are working on safety protocols that could enable students to return to campus if the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into fall, System President Ray Cross told Regents Thursday.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross sounded a warning Thursday about ending some academic programs and layoffs as campuses brace for coronavirus-related budget cuts in the coming years.
Recently released tax data show an $870 million drop in state tax collections last month — due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s efforts to shut down nonessential businesses to mitigate transmission of the virus.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross directed campuses Thursday to quickly identify signature programs worthy of preservation and brace for layoffs as the coronavirus pandemic deepens the system’s financial losses.
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff will be taking three to six unpaid furlough days over the next six months, which Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Wednesday will save the university up to $30 million.
UW-Madison is ordering most of its employees to take varying amounts of unpaid time off over the next six months and university leaders will take a 15% pay cut over that same time as COVID-19 costs grow and the campus remains mostly closed.
“There may be some things we simply cannot do in the fall,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Monday to the University Committee, a small group of professors representing faculty members on campus. “It is quite possible that 80,000 people cannot gather in Camp Randall.”
While the University of Wisconsin System and some UW campuses last week announced employee furloughs to save money in the face of looming recession-related reductions in state and local tax collections, many local governments in Dane County are making sure their employees get their hours, with some adjustments.
Chancellors of UW campuses, where the bulk of the System’s 39,000 employees work, are making their own decisions on whether to furlough employees. UW-Milwaukee became the first to say it will “most likely” impose a campus-wide furlough for its roughly 3,700 employees. UW-Madison, which is bracing for the largest loss among the campuses with an estimated $100 million shortfall, expects to announce details by the end of the month.
A University of Wisconsin System regents committee overwhelmingly approved imposing employee furloughs Thursday as campuses grapple with the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout.
The University of Wisconsin System forecasts a $170 million financial hit for the spring semester alone, an estimate that will likely grow as campuses grapple with the broader economic fallout associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skyrocketing unemployment, expected declines in tax revenue and other economic problems associated with the coronavirus crisis could spell trouble for Wisconsin’s public universities, which rely on state money to stay afloat.
University of Wisconsin President Ray Cross cautioned Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak that has already led to the suspension of all in-person spring classes could also force changes to the fall semester, which is scheduled to begin in August.
The University of Wisconsin System is continuing to monitor and recoup financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, which President Ray Cross said Thursday are only just beginning but already “significantly greater than anything I’ve seen in my 42 years of higher education.”
UW-Madison anticipates a $100 million loss because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has thrown its campus into chaos as dorms are emptied, classes moved online and students told to stay away.
In addition to the grant funds for alternatives to the youth prisons, the commission approved the following projects: Funding increase to complete the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant / Center for Dairy Research Addition and the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Laboratory projects at UW-Madison; construction of the Sellery Hall Addition and Renovation at UW-Madison.
The GOP proposal also would direct UW-Madison to compile a report on ways to best serve the state’s farmers and conduct research on technology specific to agriculture.
The UW System Board of Regents is eyeing a tuition increase in the next budget biennium, University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross told a legislative committee Wednesday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers would be permitted to request funding from the state to recover missing Wisconsin soldiers under a bill the state Senate overwhelmingly approved Tuesday.
The state Senate has approved a bill that would allow University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to request hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover missing Wisconsin soldiers’ remains.
The Assembly this week is slated to attempt to override Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ veto of legislation that would reduce the number of required training hours needed to become a certified nursing assistant in Wisconsin, as well as vote on raises for unionized trades employees within the University of Wisconsin System.
Lawmakers approved a pay raise for state workers and University of Wisconsin System employees, though they again opted to scrap Gov. Tony Evers’ plan to implement a $15 minimum wage for Wisconsin employees during a Wednesday vote.
Lawmakers on a Republican-controlled legislative committee approved a state compensation plan Wednesday giving University of Wisconsin and state employees a 2% pay bump next year and in 2021.
A 2% pay raise in each of the next two years for University of Wisconsin and state employees were slated to be approved Wednesday by a Republican-controlled committee of legislative leaders.
The panel of legislative leaders is scheduled to meet Dec. 18 to act on the pay plans, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ office said Tuesday.
The state of Wisconsin, including UW-Madison, intends to increase the minimum wage for its hourly employees to $15 an hour, according to statements issued Friday by the university and Gov. Tony Evers.
The few hundred unionized trades employees tending to University of Wisconsin System campuses are still waiting for a legislative committee to consider raises the UW System Board of Regents approved six months ago.
Other items: Members of the committee also voted unanimously to release $1 million this year and nearly $8 million next year provided in the state budget for a UW System Dairy Innovation Hub housed at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls. Committee members also voted to release $22.5 million annually in performance-based funding to the UW System.
A legislative proposal pending in the Wisconsin Legislature is far from a light touch. It requires University of Wisconsin system colleges to adopt certain rules on free speech, including suspending for at least a semester students who have twice been found responsible for “interfering with the expressive rights of others.” Students who violate free speech policies three times must be expelled.
The bill would provide new funds to the UW Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project, to assist with the recovery, identification and repatriation of Wisconsin MIA service members.
The bill has yet to be proposed in the Legislature. Murphy’s office said the bill has gathered bipartisan support since it started circulating the Legislature for sponsorship, with Reps. Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem; Mary Felzkowski, R-Irma; Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport; and Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls; and Sens. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee; and Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville signing on.
Democratic lawmakers on Friday released a package of University of Wisconsin System bills that reflect many of the same priorities of campus leaders.
Since 2013 freezing tuition at the University of Wisconsin has been in place, but two Republican lawmakers said instead they want the UW Board of Regents to increase tuition and cap it each year no greater than the rate of inflation.
Increases in how much students pay to attend University of Wisconsin campuses would be tied to the rate of inflation under a new bill that seeks to lay the groundwork for ending a near decade-long tuition freeze.
One Republican state representative is championing legislation that would set up a contingency plan if Wisconsin’s freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition goes away — a move he says could alter the discussion about lifting the freeze going forward.
Two Republican lawmakers aim to restrict how much the University of Wisconsin System can increase tuition if and when the undergraduate resident tuition freeze set to enter its seventh year is lifted.
The budget provides less than half of what the UW asked for and what they asked for wasn’t enough to sustain the System’s capacity to educate students.
UW System President Ray Cross also issued this statement: “The budget passed by the legislature makes a significant long-term investment in our campus infrastructure that will benefit students, our faculty, and the state for years to come … I also thank Governor Evers for his steadfast commitment to the University of Wisconsin System during the budget process, and everyone who continues to advocate for a strong UW System budget.”
The $81 billion state budget the Republican-run Legislature is approving this week includes $8.8 million for research on dairy farming at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is expected to — and should — issue partial vetoes to improve the Republican-proposed budget. But he should leave the Dairy Innovation Hub intact.
Noted: Their budget would give an additional $58 million to University of Wisconsin schools, about half of what Evers wanted.
The GOP budget also falls short of Evers’ proposal for the UW System. UW System campuses over the next two years would gain about $45 million under the GOP plan, about half of what Evers and System officials wanted.
Education funding: The budget includes an almost $500 million increase in K-12 investments — $900 million less than what Evers sought — and around $58 million in funding for the University of Wisconsin System, some $70 million less than what the governor wanted.
A second Republican state senator said Thursday that he would vote against Wisconsin’s state budget, giving Republicans a razor-thin margin to pass the plan without help from Democrats.
The new president of the board overseeing Wisconsin’s public universities will likely not move to undo any major changes spearheaded by his predecessors.
Wisconsin lawmakers are set to take up an $81.5 billion two-year spending plan this month that was written by Republicans but shaped by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Wisconsin Republicans have rewritten Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ state budget in the past few weeks, pushing it through the Joint Finance Committee they control last week to set up floor votes in the full Legislature.
In the battle over the 2019-’21 state budget, faculty salaries for the University of Wisconsin System have made for their own skirmish.
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature is rejecting the voters’ message. They are cutting the budget requests to fund our public schools and the UW.
The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee on Tuesday voted to approve about $1.9 billion for state building projects, with about half earmarked for upgrades and renovations at University of Wisconsin System buildings, many of which have gone without repairs for years.
Republican lawmakers Tuesday approved $1.9 billion in construction projects and building improvements across the state — with more than half being spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses, approving the vast majority of what Gov. Tony Evers wanted for colleges and universities.
The Legislature’s state budget committee voted Tuesday evening to approve $1.9 billion for state construction projects, including more than $1 billion for University of Wisconsin System projects.
There are two worlds in the chemistry labs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The first, in an aged and worn building, students and faculty make do with what they have: rows of tables that hinder collaboration, outdated fume hoods, chipping woodwork and spots of corrosion.
Summary of legislature’s budget plan for UW: The UW System would get $58 million, $45 million of which would only be released after lawmakers approve of how the university intends to spend it. That’s far less than university officials expected after weeks of discussions with lawmakers, below the $60 million cost-to-continue and short of the $150 million Evers proposed. Republicans did agree with Evers’ call to continue the tuition freeze, already in its sixth year, for at least two more years.
