Tuition increases, fewer classes and fewer upgrades on campus could be some of the effects of a $5.2 million budget cut facing UW-Platteville from 2009-11.

According to Provost Carol Sue Butts, chair of the Budget Review Task Force, the poor state economy led the state legislature to institutute a 1 percent cut in state funding of UW System campuses.

Despite the efforts to reduce the effects of this cut at UW-P, the BRTF still had to streamline campus expenses to come up with the cash for the cut.

UW-P will not be the only System campus to suffer cutbacks. In total, the 13 System campuses must come up with approximately $174 million to match the deficit.

There were 23 people on the BRTF including students David Dregne, former student senate president, and Eugene Woehrle, president of SUFAC. To reduce expenses on campus and maintain as many programs as possible, they implemented several plans: decrease energy usage, reduce out-of-state travel, combine or cut low-enrollment courses and instead of filling positions with tenured staff, academic staff will be hired. By hiring academic staff rather than tenured staff, costs will be lower without eliminating classes.

There is a possibility that tuition will be increased 4 to 6 percent. Capital purchases, such as upgrading software, new lab equipment will also be limited. The deans of each individual college are taking steps to address these cuts.

Deans discuss cuts to their colleges

The deans of the three colleges at UW-Platteville have different opinions on the budget process.

For the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, falling behind in technology updates could be detrimental. Labs need new equipment, computers need new software and programs need materials to work with.

Rich Shultz, dean of EMS, was on the Budget Review Task Force last fall. He said that the cut to the capital budget forced UW-P to cancel some orders it had placed for equipment.

Another area of concern was in low-enrollment courses. Classes with less than 20 students signed up were either canceled or combined with another section. Also, some classes that are normally offered every semester are now going to be offered less often. Increasing class sizes and more difficulty scheduling classes could result in student frustration.

“There will have to be real justification to allow for courses to have a low enrollment,” Shultz said.

Shultz said that a big part of the cost reduction was travel. Student travel is, in most cases, exempt from being cut. This will decrease the number of conventions that staff can go to for professional development. UW-P was able to cut $100,000 alone from restricting the amount of travel paid for by campus.

“The positive thing is that we were asked to reduce by a certain amount,” Shultz said. “They are not taking away [positions or classes] permanently.”

Duane Ford, dean of the College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture, is also concerned with the restrictions on the capital budget.

“All the indications say that we are falling behind in technology and the faculty and staff are worried,” Ford said.

Cuts to the capital budget could mean a lower budget for the highly successful Pioneer Farm.

“We have had to cut 2 percent, for BILSA,” Ford said, “this comes to $92,000 spread over a variety of places.”

Some of the money for the cut is coming from salary savings, distance learning, the research budget at the Pioneer Farm and travel restrictions.

The wide area of cuts is meant to lessen the blow of the cut by spreading it out. This enables BILSA to retain faculty and staff despite the fact that a lot of the costs to the college are in salaries.

Ford sees the future of funding coming increasingly from program revenue. Distance learning has been very successful in bringing in more money for campus. Selling products like milk from the Pioneer Farm would bring in more money also.

Mittie Nimocks, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Education, does not have the same capital budget problems as the deans of the other two colleges. The problem for Nimocks lies in the cost of hiring new staff.

Nimocks has also adopted the idea of hiring academic staff rather than tenure staff in order to cut costs. This has created a few problems creating release times for professors that have extra responsibilities within the college.

Release time is the reduction of the class load a professor takes to fill an administrative position. The normal class load for a professor is four classes. To have enough time to fill an administrative position, one of those classes is dropped from a professor’s schedule. This would allow the professor to have time to fill a position such as director of all freshmen composition classes.

The fear is that positions left vacant will force professors to take on a more strenuous work load. Nimocks says that her faculty and staff is up to the challenge.

“I just really want to commend the faculty,” Nimocks said. “They have been very realistic and very forthcoming and generous in making sure that we continue offering quality service to the students, even if it expands their workload.”

Projects to renovate buildings not part of proposed cuts

People wondering if the budget shortfall will cause the campus to postpone several planned building and renovation projects, don’t have much to fear.

The renovation of Ottensman Hall and Boebel Hall were not included as major building projects in the 2009-11 budget but they are not on the chopping block just yet.

Rob Cramer, assistant chancellor for administrative services, said that Boebel Hall is in the designing phase right now and construction will begin next fall. Despite the cuts to the capital budget, new labs on the first floor of Boebel will be ready for fall of 2010.

Cramer said that despite the fact Boebel and Ottensman were not included as major building projects, construction will not be halted.

“Our goal is to not have [the construction project] sit,” Cramer said.

Cramer hopes that the renovation of Boebel’s first floor will create a new interest from supporters of campus. He hopes that donations will increase due to excitement about the project and ease the burden of expenses for the project.

Williams Fieldhouse is not affected by the budget cut because it is fully funded by the students segregated fees.  Groundbreaking for the renovation will commence on May 5 and the Fieldhouse will open in the summer or fall of 2010.

Budget cuts mean fewer counselors

The decreasing budget has lead to a steady decrease in the number of counselors available on campus, something which greatly concerns some administration members.

Mick Viney, assistant chancellor of student affairs, is concerned with the decreasing number of counselors per student on campus.

“We’re at the point where we have the bare minimum number of counselors for a campus this size,” Viney said.

Lower numbers of counselors on campus has shifted counselors roles from group counseling to individual counseling. With the lack of money, outreach programs are being cut so that group counseling will no longer feasible. Support groups for individuals are an important part to improving the quality of care in counseling.

“It forces us to say, ‘what is the most effective way to provide our service and what services do we provide?’” Viney said.

Butts: Cuts not planned as permanent

Chancellor David Markee and Butts see a brighter future for UW-P.

“Right now we are not considering the cuts permanent. They are for the next two years,” Butts said.

“Overall I think we kept the characteristics of the university,” Markee said. “We want to maintain our positive direction that we have had over the past 15 years.”