Shared Gov,
At Thursday’s Shared Gov meeting we had a briefing on the budget bill, then broke into groups to discuss:
General questions about and opinions of the budget proposal
How fast can this be implemented?
What will happen if the UW shuts down?
How will this impact transfer credits?
Can we clarify the impact of increased employee contributions to health insurance and pension on overall budget cuts?
Which faculty and staff are affected by the changes in employee contributions and bargaining rights?
How will graduate assistants’ tuition and benefits be affected?
How do Board of Regent decisions impact individual campuses? Do they treat campuses differently?
Will UW employees retain public employee status? There is another idea that these employees would become employees of the Board of Trustees with fewer protections but possibly with collective bargaining rights.
How will out-of-state tuition be affected?
Will the university still be required to hire public employees? There is a consulting group that the campus hired looking at ‘creative ways’ to save costs.
Will student and other university employees have their state income taxes withheld?
Will we be able to have greater freedom in purchasing practices, purchases materials at a lower rate?
Will more extension colleges be established in the future?
Serious issues with the Board of Trustees. It is going to be staffed heavily in favor of private non-profits. What happens to the student voice? What about faculty and academic staff?
But how is this different than the current Board of Regents. How are the humanities going to be emphasized in the future?
What protections are there for students that will protect against run-away tuition increases? Well there are none. But need-based aid can and probably will increase commiserate with increases in tuition. Income based tuition? Similar to the in-state, out-of-state system that we currently have.
Changes to reciprocity with Minnesota? Rumor going around for a while that Minnesota might cut the program because they are losing a lot of students / money to Wisconsin.
General rumors that the Public Authority model might establish collective bargaining on its own, independent from the state.
Ideas for cost savings at the UW – Get creative! Every dollar we cut is one that won’t have to be funded by tuition increases!
What university functions are redundant and could be made more efficient?
Would mandating recycling at the UW save money?
Who pays for flowers on the tables at events and in food service?
Less free t-shirts
More corporate partnerships
Could the administration create a webpage advertising competitive grants students could help the UW get?
Establish a winter interim
Train Shared Governance members in budget analysis for the various committees that approve budgets
Some classes could be taught online
These are all great ideas, and I hope we continue this discussion!
If you can’t get enough budget talk, the administration is hosting a campus forum on the budget on Tuesday, March 8, at 1:30 p.m. in the Plenary Room at Grainger Hall.
Finally, in order to make the blog more interactive, and thus provide greater feedback, I’m challenging Shared Gov to make 20 comments on recent posts before next week’s Shared Gov meeting. If we get to 20 posts I’ll provide snacks at the meeting. This is a great opportunity to post a question or poll about something that is going on in your committee and get quality feedback!
Emily Kelchen
