July 29, 2005

TO: UWM Campus Colleagues

FROM: Rita Cheng, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

RE: UW-System and UWM Budget Update

On July 25 Governor Doyle signed the 2005-07 biennial budget, bringing closure along with some good news and some disappointments for UWM. The good news, as already reported in the media, is that the governor vetoed the additional cuts that had been put in place by the Senate. The attached July 26 memorandum from Executive Senior Vice President Don Mash provides a thorough overview of the governor’s actions and their impact on the final budget.

In other actions of interest to the UW-System:

• The Joint Committee on Employment Relations has approved a 2 percent increase in July 2005, a 2 percent increase in July 2006, and a 1 percent increase in April of 2007 for faculty and academic staff, except for those 34 individuals assigned to Senior Executive Salary Groups (1-9). The Board of Regents is required to report to and receive the approval of the Joint Committee on Employment Relations regarding "pay issues and current employment practices" of the UW System prior to any increases for university executives.
  
  
• The practice of granting back-up appointments for administrative employees within the University of Wisconsin System will be suspended, pending a review of employment policies and practices by the Board of Regents’ Business and Finance Committee. Board of Regents President David G. Walsh and UW System President Kevin P. Reilly ordered the immediate suspension and directed UW institutions to provide information about such appointments for the Board’s review without delay.
  
  
• The full Legislature approved and the Governor signed the 2003-05 classified Wisconsin State Employees Union contracts on Thursday, July 21. A copy of the JCOER version of the 2003-05 WSEU agreement covering the Administrative Support, Blue Collar, Security and Public Safety, and Technical bargaining units can be found at http://oser.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=4982 (395 page document).
  
  
• The Board of Regents approved the 2005-06 annual UW System budget that calls for a tuition increase of 6.9 percent for resident undergraduate students, equal to increases of $364 at UW-Madison and $356 at UW-Milwaukee, for the 2005-06 academic year.

A legislative override of the governor’s budget is not anticipated. So it is finally time to review what budget cuts are in place for the UW System and for UWM and how these cuts will be absorbed.

The budget first proposed by the Governor at the beginning of the budget building process included some increases. A portion covered cost to continue increases in salaries, fringe benefits and utilities, and these are maintained. The governor had also originally included $22M for new initiatives including increasing the number of faculty, increasing Baccalaureate Expansion, and supporting supplemental salary increases to faculty whose services are in high demand by other higher educational institutions. Some dollars, but very little, remain in the UW System budget for the latter two of these new initiatives. The Baccalaureate Expansion funds will be distributed based on submissions and reviews of campus proposals. UWM’s 2005-06 share of the supplemental increase for high demand faculty is $184,000.

The Governor’s original budget also reduced spending in administrative areas in the amount of $65M across the UW System. These cuts require the UW System to reduce spending on assets, in procurement and in administration. UWM’s portion of this budget cut is $2.5M in one-time cuts in 2005-06, $2.5M in base cuts in 2005-06, and an additional base cut of $640,000 in 2006-07.

In response to the Governor’s original budget, all UWM campus units have prepared budget reduction plans based on an across-the-board spread of the cuts. The cuts absorbed by Division and by school/college within Academic Affairs are summarized in the tables below:

The budget signed into law on July 25 includes an additional cut imposed by the Joint Finance Committee of $1.11M in base funds in 2005-06 and $653,000 in one-time funds in 2005-06. UW-System is stepping in to assist campuses in planning for these additional cuts. For UWM, UW-System is providing $1.28M in one-time relief from the impending budget cuts, thereby affording us a year to plan how best to absorb the additional $1.11M base cut and reducing our 2005-06 one-time cut to approximately $500,000.

Strategic planning for these additional reductions will involve the governance groups and especially the Academic Planning and Budget Committee as well as campus leadership groups such as the Academic Deans Council.

I will continue to share updates. If you have questions, please contact me, Associate Vice Chancellor Ruth Williams, Chief Financial Officer Andy Richards, or Budget Director Don Weill.

Attachment: July 26 UW-System memorandum to chancellors

c: Chancellor Carlos Santiago