Category: State budget

The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education released a report Wednesday detailing additional effects of the Wisconsin state budget throughout the UW System.

The University of Wisconsin System’s tuition balance shrank last fiscal year and will drop dramatically over the next year as the system contends with a Republican-imposed tuition freeze and budget cuts, according to system financial reports and projections released Monday.

Campuses across the University of Wisconsin System are slashing hundreds of jobs as they cope with a $250 million state budget cut, according to an organization that studies higher education. The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education is tracking how the UW System’s colleges and universities have cut costs in response to the reduction in state funding.

Noted: [Alex] Hummel says reductions were the result of changes that had been underway before lawmakers cut $250 million from the UW System in the new state budget. But he says eliminating the positions will help the system cope as it absorbs the budget cuts.

Noted: To close a shortfall in the current budget, Walker and GOP lawmakers cut aid to the University of Wisconsin-System by $250 million in the current two-year budget, a decrease that followed a $300 million cut in the 2011-13 budget.

The ink is barely dry on a new state budget that aims to make the University of Wisconsin System more nimble and efficient, and already another idea to reshape public higher education in Wisconsin is under review by Assembly Republicans.

Wisconsin doesn’t have a single, unified community college system — and many of the educators at the state’s two-year institutions say that’s a good thing. But as a legislative committee considers possibly merging the state’s two separate two-year systems, some politicians are questioning whether a more traditional community college model would work better for the state.

Noted: Wisconsin has already turned down $560 million from the federal government to pay for Medicaid under President Barack Obama’s health care law, which Walker has steadfastly opposed and wants to repeal. That’s enough money, Democrats and supporters of the law point out, to undo a $250 million cut to the University of Wisconsin approved in the recently passed budget and increase funding for K-12 public schools.

Leaders at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse are concerned about the effect changes in state law on shared governance and tenure will have on the campus.

UW Colleges Chancellor Cathy Sandeen says that two-year schools will keep their traditional close ties to local communities, despite the sweeping reorganization announced Tuesday.

Nearly 30% of administrative positions will be cut on campuses as leadership and management of the state’s two-year public colleges are consolidated into regions over the next several months.

The pending layoffs — estimated at the equivalent of 83 full-time positions — are in response to state budget cuts and two more years of a tuition freeze handed down by state lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker, announced University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW Extension Chancellor Cathy Sandeen on Tuesday.

The University of Wisconsin is eliminating 83 administrative and staff positions at two-year college campuses across the state in a sweeping reorganization that was announced Tuesday.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone told faculty, staff and students at a campus forum Thursday that he remains bullish and confident about the future, though realities of the new state budget will make the next two years “immensely challenging.”

With the $5.2 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin Extension, officials say there’s no doubt programming will be impacted at UW-Extension Rock County.

Gov. Scott Walker signed the biennial state budget in Waukesha July 12, revealing the exact effects it will have on the UW-Madison community.

UW System professors no longer have tenure defined by state statutes as a result of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2015-’17 budget, which has left some worrying that university faculty and researchers will leave to find more secure jobs elsewhere.

University of Wisconsin student leaders are relieved that Gov. Scott Walker has vetoed parts of a policy to scale back shared governance at state universities. They say things like shared governance and tenure aren’t safe in the hands of state lawmakers.

Vacant job openings will remain unfilled, and some staff cuts are coming, as the result of a reduction in state spending for the University of Wisconsin Extension.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – who announced a 2016 presidential bid Monday – faces intense criticism from higher education activists, after signing a $73 billion state budget that makes hefty cuts to the University of Wisconsin system and significantly reduces tenure protections for faculty.

About 24 positions will be eliminated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, mostly in the areas of academic advising and support services, to address a nearly $3 million annual reduction in state funding.

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will see one of the largest budget increases of any University of Wisconsin System campus next year, up nearly $3.9 million.

The University of Wisconsin Stevens Point will feel the impact of additional cuts made by Governor Scott Walker’s veto pen.

After Governor Scott Walker proposed a $300 million cut to the UW System, the legislature reduced the proposed amount by $50 million.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved a $6 billion budget Thursday that incorporates millions of dollars in cuts from the Legislature. Before voting, the regents worried about the effects of deep cuts on the UW System.

“At what point do we say ‘ouch’?” Regent Jose F. Vasquez asked.

A proposal to weaken faculty tenure protections in the University of Wisconsin System remains among the many controversial issues in the budget now headed to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents hasn’t forgotten about possible changes to tenure policy: At its meeting Thursday, regents checked in on the progress of a tenure task force created earlier this summer.

Cuts to the University of Wisconsin system as part of the proposed budget will mean layoffs and the reduction of positions through attrition at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh faces a $7.4 million budget cut, but administrators have taken action to divvy up the cut over three years.

The University of Wisconsin is poised to see its state funding get cut yet again after Republicans made no major changes to the UW budget that passed the Senate Tuesday.

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside will take a smaller hit in state funding cuts than initially expected, but enough to cause the university to cut its operating budget by more than 2 percent.

Noted: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called the measure a “broader issue” and said “other governmental entities have issues” with law as it is currently written, including the UW System.

“It came from a number of different sources,” Fitzgerald said. “Some of them were related to certainly the lawsuit that Sen. Erpenbach was involved in. There was some suggestion from UW System on open records request related to some of their research and some issues related to the legislature and executive branch on dealing with open records requests.”