As Governor Scott Walker prepares to officially unveil his proposed budget for the coming biennium, UW-Milwaukee leaders are preparing to cope with potentially historic funding cuts.
"Everything is on the table. Everything," says UWM Chancellor Mark Mone. "We talk about hiring, we talk about travel, future recruitment, we talk about how we'll look at all of our operating lines."
Last week, the governor announced that he plans to seek $300 million in cuts to the UW System's budget over the next two years, as he looks for ways to reduce an increasing budget deficit. Along with the cuts would come a two-year tuition freeze, but greater autonomy for the system beginning with the next budget cycle.
UWM represents 13 percent of the system's budget. Mone says the university, using the same formula that has calculated previous cuts, would expect to face $40 million in budget reductions over the next two years. He says that won't be easy.
"We have experienced - because of the last five years of enrollment declines, and tuition freezes, and past budget cuts - a situation where we would be already very strained financially," Mone says. "That sets the stage, then, for this to be particularly challenging for us to deal with."
Mone believes the university's place as an economic driver for the Milwaukee region would be at serious risk if the full extent of the cuts comes to pass. He worries about the impact of faculty and staff - either from layoffs, attrition, or inability to recruit. "Our faculty are some of the best and brightest. And if we lose those folks, it just doesn't get rebuilt quickly. It takes decades," he says.
Some lawmakers and analysts have predicted that the cuts and tuition freeze in the short term could lead to sizable tuition hikes in the years to follow. But Mone says that, too, would be problematic. "I wouldn't want tuition to rise dramatically," he says. "For Wisconsin residents, I'd do everything I can to preserve tuition, long-term, where it is." Mone says that might not be the case for out-of-state and international students.
Note: A longer interview with UWM Chancellor Mark Mone will air Thursday at 1:30 p.m. on WUWM.
