Category: State budget

State budget crunches and political turmoil have set off rumblings about a mass faculty exodus from public colleges in some states. High-profile defections stoke the rumors. But have professors really fled in droves?

University of Wisconsin System leaders are looking to give students an additional $12.7 million in financial aid over the next biennium.

After hinting this week that the state’s public higher education systems could see more support in the next budget, Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday he’s considering tying any funding increases to performance.

Wisconsin’s public colleges and universities could see their funding increase in the next state budget based on how they do in certain performance measures, Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday.

Gov. Scott Walker hinted Wednesday that additional support may be heading to Wisconsin’s public higher education providers.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will likely be the last campus this spring to hold a vote of no-confidence in the Board of Regents and UW System President Ray Cross.

Close to 70 percent of UW-Eau Claire faculty, or 227 staff members, voted in favor of a resolution saying they have no confidence in UW-System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents.

Political storm clouds are forming over how much state aid the UW System will get in the next two-year budget. And, if Republicans keep control of the Legislature in November elections, those clouds could easily turn into a red-flag storm warning.

Reductions in public funding for higher education will negatively impact Wisconsin’s economy, according to a report released today by the Wisconsin Technology Council.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Faculty Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution expressing no confidence in UW System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents.

UW-Green Bay faculty plan to take a “no-confidence” vote Wednesday afternoon in UW System President Ray Cross and the UW Board of Regents, while Gov. Scott Walker says university faculty “fail to grasp reality.”

t’s not often that a college student publicly accuses professors of immaturity and poor judgment. Yet Jacob W. Wrasse, a senior who this week finished his term as president of the student body at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, has done just that as his campus’s University Senate considers whether to rebuke top university-system officials for failing to better shield professors’ tenure protections from a legislative assault.

Ray Cross, president of the University of Wisconsin System, wrote in a March email to the vice president of the system’s Board of Regents, who was chairing a task force on controversial changes to layoff policies concerning tenured faculty members, that tenure should not mean “a job for life,” according to public records first obtained by the The Cap Times. “That is a ‘union’ argument,” Cross wrote to Regent John Behling, comparing faculty members to railroad brakemen whom he said were kept on the job for years after they were no longer needed.

Next week, the University of Wisconsin-Extension will start planning to absorb $3.6 million in budget cuts to the agency’s county and university educational services.

Last year, $250 million dollars in state funding were cut from the UW system, which also meant a loss of $3.6 million dollars in funding for the UW-Extension, which is charged with broadcast operations like WPR, providing online degrees, and working with all of Wisconsin’s counties on agricultural and economic development issues. We talk to a political writer who says that cutting funding to the extension service is contrary to the Wisconsin Idea and what it means to be a Wisconsinite.

MENOMONIE — About $35 million may be available for UW System faculty and staff compensation thanks to lower fringe benefit costs from 1,400 workers leaving the university system, UW System President Ray Cross says.

University of Wisconsin – Madison officials say budgets cuts brought upon by the $250-million deficit facing the entire UW System will lead to cuts in the number of work hours for student employees. The students use the income from these jobs to pay for tuition, room and board.

Summaries outlining the impact of state funding cuts to higher education say University of Wisconsin System campuses have laid off employees, consolidated administration, reduced advising services and cut course offerings over the past year.

Student employment hours have been drastically cut back because of state funding cuts, University of Wisconsin-Madison officials reported last week to UW System administrators. Those cuts came in addition to paring of undergraduate advising services and reductions in information technology services to students, according to a campus budget impact statement that was to have been presented to the Board of Regents when it met last week in Green Bay.

Larger class sizes, fewer course offerings, cuts to academic advising, potentially increasing how long it takes to finish a degree, loss of student jobs on campus, inability to grow high-demand programs, and outdated academic facilities that aren’t being maintained.

Institutions across the University of Wisconsin System have laid off employees, consolidated administration, reduced advising services and cut course offerings over the past year, according to documents released Monday summarizing the impact of state cuts to higher education funding.

Campuses across the UW System are cutting dozens of positions and resorting to larger class sizes to deal with state budget cuts, according to a new UW System report.

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse could be cutting up to 10 teaching positions before the fall. University officials will decide which positions to eliminate in the next month. UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow said this is the first time the university will be eliminating teaching positions since last summer’s state budget cuts.

County officials voiced concerns Tuesday about the impact of a $3.6 million cut in funding for county programs provided by the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.