Budget Plan Update

9 May 2005

University Community:

My purpose in writing you at this time is to update the budget reduction/reallocation plan as part of our normal, internal budget planning process.  

• On 20 April 2005, UW Oshkosh submitted the 2005-2006 annual operating budget and budget reallocation/reduction plan to UW System. This plan was based on a process first outlined in an all-employee memo sent to the University community on 9 February 2005:  http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/Chancellor's%20Comments%20on%20Governor's%20Budget%20Proposal.doc 

• On 9 March 2005, I sent division leaders the 2005-2006 Annual Budget Development Memo, which requested a 4% budget cut/reallocation in accordance with major budget policies and guidelines. See memo at link below:  http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/Chancellor%20memo%20FY%202005-061.doc 

The Chancellor’s staff and I thank those of you who took the opportunity to become active and informed participants in the University-wide budget process.  We appreciate the concerns you shared either personally or through governance-body representation at college or unit budget meetings, governance group meetings (faculty, academic staff, classified and student), U-PLAN Council meetings, and the open budget forums held on March 22 and 23.  The full power point presentation is available at:  http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/BudgetReductionMar05.ppt 

Your feedback was valuable and instrumental in determining the modifications to our budget reduction process.  The critical concerns you emphasized included:

            Impact on number of classroom seats and course selections for students

            Impact on student employment

            Impact on student support services (advising, counseling and career services)

            Impact on workload of all employees

            Impact on departmental supply and expense budgets

            Impact on technology and equipment budgets

            Impact on the University’s ability to generate (non- GPR) funds

Although we were not able to address all of these University-wide concerns, we provided relief for two major concerns.

1)                          We revised the colleges’ budget reduction from 4% to 3% (a relief of approximately $300,000) to address classroom seat and course selection needs.

2)                          We revised the GPR budget reduction for areas supporting differential tuition initiatives from 4% to 2% (a relief of approximately $22,000) for  advising, counseling and career services as supported by OSA.

Please take a few moments to view the revised Budget Reduction Chart at: 

http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/FY2005-2006Budget%20ReductionSubmissioncs.xls

We understand this relief will not reduce the full impact of an on-going base budget cut/reallocation of  $1,783,168 (which represents a biennial budget cut/reallocation of $3,566,336), but it helps alleviate the negative impact on the University’s mission to provide instruction and student support services. The positions eliminated in accordance with UW System budget guidelines and UW Oshkosh’s budget cutting criteria are summarized in a document found at: http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/FY%202006BudgetPositionsElimcs.doc

These 22 positions are in addition to the more than 33 administrative/staff positions eliminated during the current biennium.  Almost all of these 55 administrative/staff positions are vacant. In those cases where a position is occupied, the individual has been notified.

The 2005-06 budget filed with UW System is a plan to guide the use of projected revenue from the state and student tuition/fees. The assumptions for these projected revenues are based on enrollment projections and the final approval of the state budget proposed by the Governor. The 2005-07 enrollment projections and the related tuition and fee revenues are subject to change. The competition for students has clearly intensified. While we remain confident that we will meet our enrollment goals, we all must place the highest priority on the recruitment and retention of our students.  Success in the enrollment arena could lead to some budgetary relief.

It is unlikely, but not beyond possibility, that the proposed budget for the UW System may improve or worsen. Should the budgetary picture improve over the biennium, we can further minimize the highly undesirable impacts noted above. Significant budgetary improvement, however, is unrealistic given the State of Wisconsin’s fiscal environment. Nonetheless, we will continue to do what we can to make the best of a very difficult situation.

To view all of the above links go to http://www.uwosh.edu/admin_serv/budgets.htm 

Richard H. Wells

Chancellor