Chancellor Joe Gow knew the UW System was facing a $100 million budget cut on his way to Madison this Tuesday, but as Gov. Jim Doyle presented his 2009 - 2011 budget strategy, details emerged hinting to just how bad the situation will become. Doyle, in a speech highlighting his budget proposal, announced further reductions of one percent across all state agencies. For the UW System, that stacks up to $49 million in system-wide cuts, Gow said. Also included in the biennial budget is new financial aid for low-wealth students. The proposal, which mandates that UW schools fund the new aid themselves without state assistance, amounts to a further $25 million in new obligations. All told, the UW System faces a total budget reduction of $174 million, Gow said. But what does this mean here? UW-L receives 4.22 percent of the total budget of System, Gow said, and that percentage of the total cut is a staggering $7.3 million in expected cuts for UW-L. "This is pretty serious," Gow said. "This is a whole new era…we're going to have to take a serious look at how we pay for educating Wisconsin university students." Amid the cuts, Doyle has also required that any tuition increases be in line with past hikes, which Gow said have historically been 5.5 percent annually. Such a tuition hike here could mean $2.8 million in additional revenue over two years, Gow said, or around $370 per student every year. Increased tuition revenue will reduce some need for cuts, but Gow still expects a shortfall of around $5.3 million, far higher than his administration had hoped for. "What it means is we've got to keep going" with budget reductions, Gow said. So far budget slashing at UW-L, which could soon target UW-L staff members, amounts to just over $2 million, a long way from the $5.3 million now deemed probable. The biggest cuts so far approved include eliminating the affirmative action officer position, reducing overall travel costs by four percent, eliminating the University Honors Program, doing away with research analyst and Assessment Coordinator positions, and reducing some other categories of spending. The University will also implement pay-to-print, which will generate $75,000 from fees charged to students when they print documents. Gow's administration also plans to sell rights to manage the bookstore to a third party such as Barnes & Noble, Borders or Follette's, generating $100,000 annually. Other cuts officials are looking at include reviewing stipends paid to program directors, reducing the maintenance budget for trash collection and recycling, and reconsidering academic staff contract terms. The University also hopes to increase its revenue by recruiting more international students, who pay full out-of-state tuition. But the budget proposal still has to pass through the state Assembly and Senate before Doyle can sign it. "I try to be optimistic," Gow said, but added that he doesn't know what might happen between now and when the proposal becomes the plan.
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