Governorâs budget designed to help the university ‘bounce back’
Calling higher education an economic driver for Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers proposed a major reinvestment in the University of Wisconsin System.
Evers unveiled his proposed 2021-23 biennial state budget on Tuesday evening, recommending an additional $191 million in funding for the UW System. Breaking a decades-long trend, the budget calls for spending more on colleges than prisons.
In addition to covering ongoing costs for current UW System operations, the governor would provide an additional $40 million in flexible block grant funding to the Board of Regents. Although the budget would extend the current tuition freeze for two years, it would provide $50 million in new funding to offset that lost revenue. The budget earmarks $2 million for additional positions at UW Extension and UWâMadisonâs College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and recommends enough funding to support 2% annual pay increas
WHITEWATER
UW-Whitewater is getting $200,000 from the UW System to put two recruiters in high schools in Rock and Walworth counties with the goal of helping students overcome barriers and attend system schools.
UW-W is one of five system schools that are splitting the $1 million for what the system in a press release Wednesday called a ânew precollege pipeline initiative.â UW-Oshkosh, UW-Parkside, UW-Platteville and UW-Stout are the other universities.
Kenny Yarbrough, UW-Wâs associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity, inclusion and support programs, told The Gazette on Wednesday that UW-W wants one coach/recruiter to target an urban or suburban area in Janesville and Beloit and the other to go after more rural areas in Walworth County.
WHITEWATER
UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson encouraged faculty senate members at UW-Whitewater to lobby their legislators for more support as he listened to faculty concerns at a senate meeting Tuesday.
Thompson acknowledged the serious budget situation the university finds itself in, but he said he wants to help get it out of trouble.
âI need your help to do it. I canât do it alone,â he said. âIâve spent more time on Whitewater than any other campus since Iâve been president. I intend to do it until we get it turned around and get your fiscal house in order.â