Spring 2025 State of the University update from Chancellor King
Dear colleagues:
Today we gathered for our annual State of the University Address. During the event, we celebrated our talented, hard-working colleagues who helped make us Warhawk Bold. Thank you for joining me in congratulating our Years of Service honorees, recognized for five to 45 years with UW-Whitewater, as well as this year’s Inclusivity awards and our most recent Board of Regents Academic Staff Excellence Award. We appreciate the example they all set in fulfilling our mission.
I want to recap the information shared at today’s event.
2023-2028 Strategic Plan. Focused on action and accountability, the plan is progressing well. You can track progress on our dashboard, which collects relevant metrics, from degree attainment to retention efforts to institutional financial health. We appreciate the co-leads and numerous team members who are leading this work through the 15 action plans. Make no mistake, it takes ALL OF US working together to meet our strategic plan and enrollment goals. A few of the strategic plan action items are highlighted below:
Chancellor’s Committee on Student Success. The committee developed a student success framework to define key aspects of student success at UW-Whitewater. The framework contains four major components: 1) Attainment of Learning Outcomes, Skills, and Competencies; 2) Engagement and Belonging; 3) Career Preparation; and 4) Academic Achievement and Persistence. Next, the team will engage strategies to incorporate the framework across the university.
Establish a one stop for students. Since opening last year in the University Center, the One Stop has helped hundreds of students. Within the One Stop, Success Coaches are available to provide holistic student support and guidance to our Warhawks. UW-Whitewater's Success Coaching model strives to compliment, amplify and expand the student success work occurring across campus. The team is pursuing a live chat function, expanded cross campus collaboration, and continued promotion and assessment.
Institution-wide advising. We are excited about Stellic, a student registration and academic planning platform that allows students to create an individualized plan and optimize their academic journey. Stellic is being introduced to current students this spring before they begin using it for spring 2026 registration in November. New students coming for SOAR (Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration) starting in May will begin using Stellic for registration immediately.
In addition to the Strategic Plan, we discussed a number of institutional priorities and initiatives.
- Enrollment and Retention. Tenth-day enrollment for this fall was 11,752, the largest at the university in four years. We retained 78 percent of the 2023 fall cohort. As you know, our goal is to achieve enrollment of 13,000 students — which would be a record for UW-Whitewater. And to reach a retention rate of 82 percent — we’ve hit that mark before and we can do it again.
- Budget. Due to our focus on increasing enrollment, increasing retention and continuous improvement, we’re on our way to eliminate our budget structural deficit by fiscal year 25-26. I am appreciative of the ongoing work that has been done by the Chancellor’s Cabinet and the Strategic Planning Budget Committee which includes faculty, staff and shared governance leaders.
- Budget Advocacy. Under the leadership of President Rothman and our colleagues at the Universities of Wisconsin, we’re navigating the next state budget cycle. Wisconsin currently ranks 43rd out of 50 states for the funding of its public universities. This level of underfunding jeopardizes the quality of — and access to — education that students deserve and parents and families expect. We recently conducted research that shows UW-Whitewater and our alumni contribute more than $1.4 billion dollars to Wisconsin’s economy each year. I have communicated with the governor and key legislators that it is time for UW-Whitewater to receive the appropriate funding levels to continue to advance our mission and core values to student success.
- Compensation. We made strides in addressing compensation priorities in collaboration with shared governance. Looking ahead, we are advocating for a 5% and 3% pay plan increase for the next biennium.
- Federal Landscape. In this active time of federal directives/changes, we have a UW-Whitewater committee that reviews orders on a campus level. And we are in strong communication with the Universities of Wisconsin, which reviews orders at the System level. Let me be clear and direct. During these turbulent times, I want to affirm academic freedom in teaching, research or creative activities. Faculty and instructors retain the right to design courses, select materials, determine pedagogical approaches, and evaluate student performance. Academic freedom permits the discussion of challenging and controversial ideas if they are relevant to the subject matter of the course. I ask the faculty, staff and students to remain focused and know that the university’s leadership is working at all levels to keep us moving forward.
- Campus Climate Survey. A committee of students, faculty, and staff reviewed the Campus Climate Survey data in Fall 2024 and developed an Overview and Summary of the Findings. The data and analysis revealed many strengths and clear areas of opportunity. Next, the committee will promote unit-level discussions and coordinate existing resources to deepen a culture of collaboration as we move forward in this space. Examples of unit-level discussions were shared.
- Fundraising campaign. In June, we will launch the largest fundraising campaign in our university’s history. “Our Stories. Our Future: A Campaign for UW-Whitewater” will seek to raise $50 million dollars to address priorities aligned with our strategic plan. It’s up to all of us to encourage alumni, friends and prospective donors to connect with UW-Whitewater through events and giving days, and to share the impact of our university.
The state of our university is strong. We are focused on our mission, vision and our core values. We have a strategic plan that is robust and vibrant. We will remain committed to the financial stability and continuous improvement of our university. We will recognize that every faculty, staff and student matters and belongs here. And we will continue to be Warhawk Bold!
Corey A. King, Ed.D.Chancellor