OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A letter sent to students and staff from the chancellor of UW-Oshkosh Friday detailed promising news in the university’s ongoing battle against budget issues.
Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said, according to a new fiscal forecast, UW-Oshkosh’s estimated deficit gap at the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2024) will be smaller than previously projected.
Leavitt attributed this to “the incredibly difficult but necessary measures we have undertaken and continue to carry out within the Institutional Realignment Plan.”
The letter states the university’s negative balance heading into the next fiscal year will be approximately $3 million — significantly lower than the most recent estimate of $6 million and the $18 million deficit initially projected in August.
Leavitt called the latest number “still a significant gap but one that is appreciably better than the initial forecast” and said UW-Oshkosh has a plan to close the remainder of the deficit.
The painful decisions and actions taken to date have generated approximately $15 million of savings. We all know this has come at a significant human cost to our UWO community. We have dramatically lessened the remaining deficit we face. But we need to maintain our budget, workforce, restructuring, student recruitment and student retention discipline to truly emerge a fiscally sustainable institution by FY 2026 (which begins July 1, 2025). We can do it.
More than 200 staff members at UW-Oshkosh were laid off or furloughed in October.
Additional topics discussed in Leavitt’s letter include Wednesday’s controversial vote by the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents to, among many provisions, freeze DEI positions in exchange for pay increases for UW employees, as well as a project taking shape to renovate or build a new Polk Library on campus.
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