Freyberg:
I spoke with Chancellor Blank earlier. As she said, UW-Madison will likely face layoffs.
There are other ways they can tighten their belts.
Governor Walker:
They might be able to make savings just by asking faculty and staff to consider teaching one more class a semester could have a tremendous impact in making sure we preserve an affordable education for all of our UW campuses at the same time we maintain a high-quality education.
Freyberg:
Faculty, staff and leaders of all 26 UW System campuses are bracing for the proposed cuts. UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mone says his is one of the leanest research universities in the country, and it’s about to get $40 million leaner. He joins us now from the campus of UWM. Chancellor, thank you very much for doing so.
Chancellor Mark Mone:
Thank you for having me.
Freyberg:
What is your reaction to the size of the proposed budget cut for your campus?
Chancellor Mone:
It’s the largest budget cut we’ve experienced in our history. It’s tremendously unfortunate. And it comes after several years of budget cuts as well. We have had over the last 15 years significant budget cuts indeed, and that’s what makes this particularly difficult for us to manage and to continue to do the things as all of us will experience at UW System. It will be difficult to continue to provide some of the great education, research, engagement and really do those things that have made the UW System so great over all the years.
Freyberg:
Have you kind of put pencil to paper yet to decide where you might go first to cut?
Chancellor Mone:
It’s preliminary. We — with this being the proposed budget–we have not begun to do that. We have created a task force that will begin looking line by line at every area. I can tell you the priorities not to cut would be areas that affect our student success and our research profile and community engagement. Those remain very high, but we’ll have to look at everything.
Freyberg:
Now, how long have you been Chancellor there?
Chancellor Mone:
I’ve been Interim Chancellor since last year and then I was officially appointed on December 15 of 2014.
Freyberg:
When you were Interim Chancellor and going for the position, did you have any sense that this is what would come?
Chancellor Mone:
No, not at this magnitude. We actually had approved in august a $95 million request from the Board of Regents, and I think there were a lot of folks who anticipated that while we would not get that much, we thought we might get a smaller amount, but not going this way. So this is — was not expected.
Freyberg:
In the midst of all of this what is your reaction to the Governor saying that professors should teach another class to help– to help offset these cuts?
Chancellor Mone:
Well, I appreciate the sentiment that there is — there is, you know, always some areas that we should look at, and we will look at everything. I think that there’s also a lack of appreciation for, frankly, how hard individuals work at the University. There's the visible thing, there’s the classroom activities, there’s the more explicit, tangible partnerships and work we do in the community in so many different ways, but there’s a tremendous amount of work that happens at a University like ours that isn’t seen. A lot of the one-on-one intensive work with graduate students, the types of work that’s required to make the advances in engineering, the type of work that’s required in a variety of different fields. It may not always be explicitly visible, so that’s what’s oftentimes lost, is that larger complete understanding of truly how hard individuals work, how they’ve dedicated their lives, their passion, their energies, for so many years to the academic enterprise.
Freyberg:
And yet the public sentiment also seems to be in many quarters that there is a lot of fat and bloat at the University of Wisconsin and in their budgets, and that Campuses can kind of withstand these cuts without a lot of hurt. Is there fat in your budget?
Chancellor Mone:
I would say absolutely not. I would say we have leaned things out so significantly over the last 15 years that test cuts will be painful in ways we haven’t experienced before. I think that would be fair to say across the UW System. We have had such significant cuts over the years that we have, between base cuts and overall reductions in our approach, how we’ve slowed down on so many different fronts and have really trimmed the former level of reserves such that our future advancements are certainly going to be compromised, the types of things that we have tried to do across a lot of our ventures in really making that difference that we have been successful at for the last successful decade across Wisconsin are at risk at this point. Meanwhile, the tuition freeze is proposed to continue for two more years.
Freyberg:
I know that’s difficult for University Administration, and yet parents and students like that. So at the end of the two-year tuition freeze how high would you like to see tuition go?
Chancellor Mone:
My preference would be as much as possible for Wisconsin residents not to have much increase, if any, as we can, if that is allowed after two years. I think it’s critical that we continue to maintain the value of higher education. As you probably are aware, we’re one of the best values in the country. For the quality of education that’s provided at the University of Wisconsin System, is an absolute bargain. So I’d like to see that be maintained. Now, for out of state and for international students, for certain populations, it may be that we increase and grow more in those areas, but I would not advocate a dramatic increase by any means in tuition for University of Wisconsin students.
Freyberg:
Rather quickly as we close here, Chancellor, do you think that this public authority flexibility is an even trade for the cuts in tuition freeze?
Chancellor Mone:
That’s a good question. I welcome the possibilities for autonomy and flexibility but those are longer term and those are possible. The cuts are immediate, and now — and we know they will be painful, so the trade-off long-term may be there but today I don’t see it as an even trade-off.
Freyberg:
Chancellor Mone, thank you very much.
Chancellor Mone:
Thank you.
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News Stories from PBS Wisconsin
02/03/25
‘Here & Now’ Highlights: State Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, Jane Graham Jennings, Chairman Tehassi Hill

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