UW System hit with another 65-113 million in cuts. Could total as high as $363 million for 2011-2013

[lutefisk]

Clearly this is devasting for the UW System. While for the UW System hating Walker and Huebsch (and I'm guessing Steve Nass), it is another step closer to killing 150+ years of public higher education in Wisconsin. For these guys it's a Grover Norquist fantasy come true: weaken the UW System to the point that they can "drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub".

This from an email written by Ray Cross,Chancellor, University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin-Extension and published in the Cap Times:

I wanted to let you know that UW System has received notice from Mike Huebsch, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), announcing the allocation of a required biennial lapse (one-time reduction) for 2011-13. While technically this "agency" lapse was included in the 2011-13 biennial budget, it comes as a surprise to many of us. It was not part of the $250 million base reduction targeted toward the UW System when the budget was passed.

The total lapse to all state agencies is $174.3 million over the course of the biennium. Of this amount, the University of Wisconsin System is being directed to lapse $46.1 million this year (2011-12) and an additional $19.6 million next year (2012-13), for a total of $65.7 million (37.6% of the overall lapse amount). Secretary Huebsch's letter also indicates that the lapse requirement could go higher, perhaps up to $300 million state-wide, if state revenues are weaker than predicted in the budget.

If required to do both lapses, the UW System would need to lapse a total of $113.3 million this biennium. This is in addition to the $250 million base cut included in the budget, for a combined total of $363 million for 2011-13.

Link


In another article Cross comments:

"The surprise was what I perceive to be the disproportionate amount for the System," said Ray Cross, chancellor for UW Colleges and Extension....

Cross said he's not sure how the System will absorb the cut, but painted a grim picture.

"Let's just say this will be very egregious," he said. "This will be serious...We've removed any low hanging fruit. Now you're cutting meat. There will be changes we will have to make."

Link

[midnight]

1. Ms. Martin was emphatic that the failure of the proposal to break the flagship campus from

university system, a quietly devised plan that drew the consternation of the system's Board of Regents when they learned of it, was not among the reasons for her departure.


Ms. Martin's departure from Madison will bring to a close a relatively short stint as chancellor that coincided with high-profile clashes over the future of the flagship campus and the power of labor unions in the university system and the state.

She forged alliances with Gov. Scott Walker, who supported a now-doomed proposal to split the flagship off from the University of Wisconsin system, while at the same time speaking out as a defender of the collective-bargaining rights that Mr. Walker, a Republican, sought to strip from Madison's faculty and most other public employees. (Governor Walker apparently has prevailed on that point: The Wisconsin State Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday afternoon that a law enacting his plan could go into effect.)

Ms. Martin was further thrust into the collective-bargaining debate when the state's Republican Party sought the e-mail records of a Madison professor who had been critical of the governor's plan.

While acknowledging the "turmoil" of the past year, Ms. Martin says she is still unsure of the degree to which the recent controversies influenced her decision to leave. She conceded, however, that she had not expected to end her first college presidency after just three years at Madison, where she earned her Ph.D. in German literature in 1985. She will begin her new role at Amherst in August.

.http://chronicle.com/article/After-Contentious-Year-Martin/127919/

I wonder if these cuts are part of the flag ship proposal?

[dragonlady]

2. Punishment for not going along with the split-up

They have the power and will use it as they see fit.

[lutefisk]

3. Yes, it's about retribution, not budgets. Nass and Huebsch have irrational hatred/fear of UW System.

Nass and Huebsch (and of course, Walker) are as nasty as they come. The state is paying a high price for Republican rule.

Recall Walker!:hi:

[Viking12]

5. Nass and Huebsch have irrational hatred/fear of reality.

Fixed that for you. The UW system is just an extension of reality. They want everyone to be as ignorant as they are. You are absolutely correct this is and will continue to be a roadblock for the economic and social development in this state.

[lutefisk]

7. It appears the experience of receiving an "F" as a student deeply affected Nass

"In explaining his views on higher education, Nass points to something that happened when he was a student at UW-Whitewater. He got an F on a test in an American politics class, he says, for disagreeing with his professor's belief that the world would run out of coal by the end of the 20th century. Nass went to another professor to complain.

"He told me, ‘You will have to write what she says in the classroom and agree with her,'" says Nass. So for the rest of the semester, Nass did just that, through gritted teeth. He eventually passed the class, though, he says now, "So much for free speech.""

It would be great if we could get Nass (and a few others) a psychiatric evaluation.

This is from an interesting article in the Isthmus from 2007:

Steve Nass vs. the UW

[mojowork_n]

4. Hacking away at the Collective IQ and Critical Thinking...

...skills of the voter base in the entire state of Wisconsin.

Same thing they're trying to do with public education, on the local elementary and high school level.

They don't want an educational system that might dare to introduce concepts like "community good," or
"making informed choices," or "public good."

A vocational / technical skill set should be more than enough for anyone. (I mean, Marquette didn't
offer a degree program in Posturing, Grandstanding, Cheating & Dirty Tricks, so Snotty Scotty could
only climb so far, in his academic career, and look at how far he's gotten....)

Bunch of Know Nothings:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing#Platform

In the decade before the U.S. Civil War, the "Know Nothings" stood for

The platform of the American Party called for, among other things:

• Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries.
  
• Restricting political office to native-born Americans of English and/or Scottish lineage and Protestant persuasion.
  
• Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship.
  
• Restricting public school teacher positions to Protestants.
  
• Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools.
  
• Restricting the sale of liquor.
  
• Restricting the use of languages other than English.
  

They want to take us back before the turn of the century, to before
anyone had even thought of having any "Progressive" ideas.

[Viking12]

6. UW Oshkosh Chancellor wells weighs in: "Additional cuts deep, disproportionate, disappointing for UW

The UW System traditionally represents 7 percent of the state’s general purpose revenue (GPR) expenditures, yet it is being asked to absorb 38 percent of this cut, a far larger share of the lapse compared to other state government agencies. For example, UW System’s cut is nearly five times the size of the cut required of the Department of Corrections, which commands a comparable share of GPR funding.

http://www.uwosh.edu/today/14866/chancellor-wells-additional-cuts-deep-disproportionate-disappointing-for-uw-system/

[lutefisk]

8. That's a solid response from Wells.

He writes "we are confident we can get through this year with no layoffs". While technically there might not be "layoffs", people will have there jobs cut back, and in some cases lose their jobs. It's going to be rough for quite a few people. And of course further negative impact on the state economy...

Recall Walker!:hi:

[dembotoz]

9. i would hope the recall does well on the campus

[lutefisk]

10. With 170,000+ students in the UW System, they should be a force in the recall...nt