MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – The UW Board of Regents has asked lawmakers to reduce the $300 million cut in state funding over the next two years that Governor Scott Walker put in his new budget.
The Regents also backed away Thursday from totally supporting the proposed public authority Walker would create. It would be the vehicle for the autonomy the university receives to set its own tuition, building and purchasing systems, and policies.
The Regents urged lawmakers to consider changing current state laws to create UW autonomy, as an alternative to a public authority. Regent David Walsh said it took two years to draft a public authority for the UW Hospital and Clinics’ network, and the 1970’s merger of the UW and the old Wisconsin State University system took three years.
He said a public authority might be the way to go, but there are too many unanswered questions.
Walker’s budget calls for the authority to be in place by mid-2016. As for the cut in state funds, chancellors throughout the 26-campus system said it would mean job losses — up to 300 layoffs at Milwaukee.
La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow said the budget would require the university to run a “21st century higher education system with 1998 funding levels.”
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)