Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker asked higher education leaders for help Thursday balancing the state?s tight budget and fulfilling his campaign promise of creating 250,000 jobs. Walker told the University of Wisconsin System regents they will need to use “flexibility, innovation and creativity” to make tight budgets stretch further. Walker has inherited a projected $2.7 billion budget shortfall for the two-year period that begins July 1, 2011. Against that backdrop, leaders of the UW System of 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges are concerned about the level of state tax funding they will receive to educate their 170,000 students. They have already said that budget cuts in recent years have reduced services, increased class sizes and made their salaries less competitive. UW System leaders are seeking changes that would give them freedom to run their operations more efficiently.
Office of Strategic Communication