UW-Madison, UW System address proposed cuts

As plans get underway to gather public input on how the UW System should handle budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle last month, UW–Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley has gathered input from campus leaders on how to handle cuts here.

The governor proposes cutting UW System by $250 million during the 2003-05 biennium, $150 million of which could be made up through tuition increases.

Last month, Wiley asked deans and other campus leaders to present him with exercises on how they would handle cuts at the unit level. Those exercises have been collected and will be the basis for how the cuts are distributed across campus.

Wiley detailed some of his preliminary plans for handling the cuts to the Board of Regents at its March 6-7 meeting. Those plans include: significantly reducing administrative costs; holding open or eliminating instructional and non-instructional positions; increasing the size of lecture classes, discussion sections and instructional labs; reducing support for or closing several departments, centers, institutes and programs; and eliminating low-enrollment courses that are least critical to degree completion.

Regent President Guy Gottschalk also announced a number of listening sessions this month to get feedback from students, faculty, parents, alumni, community leaders and others about how budget cuts could affect their campuses and communities.

The first two sessions were to occur Tuesday, March 11 in Eau Claire and Thursday, March 13 in Green Bay. Additional sessions are planned for Stevens Point on March 25, Waukesha on March 26 and Madison on March 31.