Dear Campus Colleagues,
I am working away from campus, but I did want to quickly touch base with you regarding the state budget. As you may have heard, Governor Scott Walker signed the budget on Sunday. There were a number of vetoes by Governor Walker, including some requested by the UW System. While we are disappointed that the language regarding tenure and faculty layoffs was kept in the budget, Governor Walker did restore the shared governance portion related to student responsibility in the setting of allocable student fees.
Again, I reiterate that despite these changes in state statute, we remain committed to tenure and shared governance as well as the principles of academic freedom. We will continue to follow our policies related to tenure and our rich tradition of shared governance and academic freedom.
Regarding our fiscal situation, our portion of the $250 million UW System budget cut is $5.8 million. As you know, about 40 positions have been removed from GPR funding, and we have made other difficult financial decisions to reduce our GPR budget for fiscal year 2015-16. None of this is easy, but I know we are all committed to maintaining UW-Whitewater as a great place for our students, our faculty and our staff.
I want to stress again that we have no plans to outsource either the custodial or grounds crew staffs. We also have no plans to offer an incentive for early retirement, nor do we plan layoffs.
In the weeks ahead, I will continue to update you regarding the budget and will begin discussing our strategic planning process, which is vital in light of our budget situation and to move our university forward.
I want to thank the campus community for all of the hard work that has gone into the budget discussions and decision-making process. This has been a protracted process and one that has forced us to make some difficult decisions. But I am very proud of the fact that we did it as a community, working together and always putting the quality of our programs and the student experience first.
Sincerely,
Beverly Kopper
Chancellor