Dive Brief:
- The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is overhauling its administrative model in response to a 13.5% cut in operating funds, but the campus has found it difficult to keep cuts away from the classroom entirely.
- This school year, the campus will have 25% fewer senior-level administrators, 20% fewer support staff members, and it is centralizing student and administrative services as well as looking into savings through efficiencies with facilities.
- About 38 full- and part-time lecturers did not have their contracts renewed for this year, meaning class sizes will increase and the number of sections of each course will decrease.
Dive Insight:
The Wisconsin legislature approved $250 million in cuts for this two-year budget cycle, following cuts instituted during the last budget negotiation and passed in concert with a tuition freeze. As state legislatures began debating budgets across the country, Louisiana came out as the state with the most draconian proposal, but state legislators ultimately backed off those cuts and left that state's higher education systemwith almost flat funding from year to year. Some community colleges in Arizona are operating with no state money at all, thanks to budget decisions by legislators. And in Illinois, newly elected Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed a 30% cut to higher education funding, but legislators are still arguing over a budget that, one month into the state’s fiscal year, has yet to be approved.