TO: UW-­‐Stout Faculty and Staff via electronic mail FROM: Bob Meyer, Chancellor DATE: March 5, 2015 RE: State Budget Update I thought it was time for a brief update on what we are doing to plan for a reduced level of state aid in the 2015-­‐17 state budget. The current projection of that reduction based on the governor’s budget is about $6 million a year over the biennium. This represents 12.2 percent of our current general-­‐purpose-­‐revenue allocation. Please keep in mind that the Legislature has just started its review of the budget. Here is synopsis of our actions to date: Our Strategic Planning Group adopted a set of principles to guide our budget decisions. They are: 1.
Protect the integrity and quality of instruction as defined by our accrediting bodies. 2.
Make data-­‐informed budget decisions. 3.
To the degree possible, ensure that budget decisions complement FOCUS 2020 goals and maintain sufficient flexibility to respond to emergencies. 4.
Make budget reductions that are strategic and not across the board. 5.
Ensure the process is transparent and considers all possible options, while seeking input from all campus constituencies. We established a Website to seek suggestions from the campus on how to address the budget issues. More than 700 suggestions have been received. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send in suggestions. We established a nine-­‐person committee to review those suggestions, and their report is due March 23rd. That group has representation from each division on campus and governance groups. You can read the committee minutes here. A login is required. Their report will be reviewed by our Strategic Planning Group. The Chancellor’s Cabinet will discuss the recommendations from the Strategic Planning Group and other stakeholders, with final decisions resting with me. To get departments and unit directors to start thinking about what challenges might lie ahead, I asked them to complete an exercise finding reductions of 5, 10 and 15 percent in their annual budgets. Again, this is simply an exercise to begin the planning process; I do not plan to enforce any reduction across the board. I have conducted four budget forums to ensure the campus has as much information as possible about our budget situation and to take comments and answer questions. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff have attended or watched online. Those forums are available at the Website. We have also established a state budget Website to keep the campus apprised of the latest developments. Throughout this period, I have tried as much as possible to be factual and direct, without resorting to histrionics. There is no question that this is an emotional and anxious time on campus, and I certainly don’t want to do anything that would contribute to even more problems in this area. We also have engaged in many, many conversations with our local legislators to ensure they know how much a cut of this size would affect our campus. I believe they understand that the cut must be reduced, but there are countervailing forces as well, such as whether additional revenue will be available to use for a reduced cut. I hope this short update has been helpful. I would be happy to discuss this issue with you any time.