Category: State budget

Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman is defending a leadership decision to lay off tenured faculty as a necessary response to declining enrollment and lagging state aid.

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents will decide this week if they’ll ask the state Legislature for an $855 million budget increase in the next two-year budget.

The state public university system is leaning heavily on a low national ranking in a bid seeking $855 million from the Legislature.

Wisconsin ranks 43rd among 50 states in funding its public four-year universities, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. The advocacy group represents the UW System, as well as other state university systems.

President Jay Rothman said during a brief Zoom news conference Monday that his administration plans to ask regents on Thursday to approve asking for the money as part of the 2025-27 state budget. The request is only the first step in a long, winding budget-making process.

The state Legislature has formed a study committee to discuss possible reforms and restructuring of the Universities of Wisconsin.

Following December’s deal between the University of Wisconsin System and the Republican-controlled budget-writing committee, a new committee will recommend legislation to address future plans for the UW System.

Communities that have lost a two-year Universities of Wisconsin branch campus will be eligible for up to $2 million in grants.

The state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved releasing $20 million to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for a grant program to assist communities in redeveloping shuttered campuses.

Following a showdown between the Legislature and Universities of Wisconsin over funding last winter, a new group will study the future of the state’s public universities and issue recommendations.

Last week, Gov. Tony Evers announced he’s seeking an $800 million budget increase for the Universities of Wisconsin in the state’s next two-year budget. He described it as the largest increase in state funding in the UW system’s history.

One university has completely depleted its unrestricted reserves — a first in UW System history — that will require the UW System to step in and loan some of its own reserves. And some of the universities projecting to close their deficits in the coming year still need to make “substantial” cuts to achieve that goal, UW officials told the UW Board of Regents at a Thursday meeting on the UW-Milwaukee campus.

The University of Wisconsin System’s chief diversity officer has resigned after a year on the job and amid Republicans’ targeting of campus diversity efforts.

In other states, a lack of trust between those parties has led to chaotic results. In Wisconsin, the Republican-led state house held up millions of dollars in funding for the state university system over disagreements on DEI spending, kicking off a war of attrition that lasted over six months and nearly derailed the University of Wisconsin system budget.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is requesting that the state budget committee release $20 million meant to create a grant program that would support communities where a University of Wisconsin branch campus has closed.

Members of the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee voted Tuesday on party lines to approve an audit of all diversity, equity and inclusion activities within the state’s executive agencies — a move that runs counter to policies and priorities laid out by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Republican lawmakers are ordering a review into initiatives that aim to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within state government.

In December he forced Universities of Wisconsin regents to freeze diversity hires, re-label about 40 diversity positions as “student success” positions, drop an affirmative action hiring program at UW-Madison in exchange for funding to cover staff raises and construction projects. Vos said after the deal was complete that he wanted an in-depth review of diversity initiatives across state government.

The review of how state agencies are using DEI was promised by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, after a protracted battle between top GOP legislators and the Universities of Wisconsin over programs to support people of color and other historically disadvantaged groups.

Gov. Tony Evers announced a push Friday calling on the Legislature to approve more funding for the Universities of Wisconsin.

Evers called it the largest increase in state support for the university system in more than two decades.

The base tuition rate for resident undergraduates will increase by 3.75 percent. This is the second increase in two years since a tuition freeze was lifted. Tuition increased by an average of 5 percent for this school year.

Resident undergraduate tuition rates would rise 3.75% for the 2024-25 academic year, without including fees or room and board. Seven universities in the UW system are proposing even higher increases on top of the 3.75%, Rothman told reporters Thursday morning.

Wisconsin’s in-state undergraduate students will see a tuition hike of 3.75 percent in the fall, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman announced Thursday.

The closure of two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee branch campuses will lead to the layoffs of tenured faculty members under a policy that’s previously been applied just once.

The University of Wisconsin System wants to increase tuition for in-state undergraduates by 3.75% next school year, UW System President Jay Rothman said Thursday.

If approved, it would be the second consecutive increase for resident students after a decade of seeing their base tuition rate frozen. Tuition increased by an average of 5% this school year.

A controversial state budget deal hammered out last year for the University of Wisconsin system stoked criticism from all sides — from its original proposal, initial rejection, and eventual passage — according to nearly 1,000 pages of emails, text messages, and other communications The Chronicle received in response to an open-records request.

The GOP-controlled state Senate fired eight Democratic appointees Tuesday, including two members of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents who voted against a controversial deal limiting campus diversity positions in exchange for state funding.

One of the last pieces in a sweeping deal between the University of Wisconsin System and the state Legislature was approved Thursday, moving campuses one step closer to the end of an extended and contentious state budget session.

The Universities of Wisconsin will receive around $32 million in funding withheld for months by Republican lawmakers amid ongoing efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campuses.

Lawmakers approved spending millions of dollars for a new engineering building at UW-Madison, part of a funding package sent to Gov. Tony Evers that project advocates cheered as a “long time coming.”