UW system needs $855M increase to compete with neighboring states

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents will decide this week if they’ll ask the state Legislature for an $855 million budget increase in the next two-year budget. 

Gov. Tony Evers asked the regents to consider the increase in June. On Monday, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman told reporters he’ll bring the proposal to the regents meeting on Thursday and Friday.

Rothman said the funding bump is necessary so Wisconsin can shed its ranking of 43rd of 50 in public funding for universities. By comparison, Illinois ranks first, Michigan ranks third, Iowa ranks ninth and Minnesota ranks 10th. 

Rothman is calling the budget proposal “Up to the Middle.” 

“We won’t win the war for talent if we don’t get up to the middle,” Rothman said. “We’re falling behind after years of neglect, and this budget seeks to address that trend.”

Rothman added that under this proposal, he would not recommend tuition increases over the period covered by the biennial budget. And he believes the funding increase would help preserve branch campus access points for students throughout the state.

Six two-year branch campuses have either closed or are slated for closure. When asked for details about the future of branch campuses, Rothman was vague. 

He said the demand for two-year degrees continues to decline, so the UW system is looking at ways to use “access points” to serve the communities where they are located. 

“That may be continuing education, that may be degree completion, focused on a four-year degree, it may be offering graduate programs at those locations,” Rothman said. “If we got the money that we’ve asked for in the proposal, we would have those investment dollars to try to make those locations more viable, and allow those access points to continue to remain open.”

Years of cuts have led to this proposal 

The UW system will submit its biennial budget request this fall for the governor’s consideration as Evers prepares his 2025-27 executive budget to be introduced in early 2025.

A report released in April 2023 by the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that the UW system ranked 43rd nationally for per-student funding in 2021.

Wisconsin ranks 43rd of 50 states in public funding of four-year higher education, according to the latest State Higher Education Finance report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, or SHEEO. That figure includes state funding and tuition.

Rothman said it would take an additional $457 million annually to reach the median of states, according to SHEEO.

During the June Regents meeting, Evers said the Legislature has waged a war on public higher education in Wisconsin for more than a decade. 

“UW is central to our state’s economy. It is an essential part of our promise of public education. It’s critical for our state’s workforce and recruiting, and retaining, and training talent for the state’s future,” Evers said in June. 

According to a memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, in the 2011-13 biennial budget, the Universities of Wisconsin requested more than $214.6 million over the biennium to fund their operations, but the Republican-controlled Legislature and former Gov. Scott Walker actually cut their budget by more than $203.7 million. 

Further cuts to the UW system were made in the next two biennium budgets. 

During the 2017-19 budget, rather than cut the university system’s funding further, Republicans provided approximately $12 million less than what the system requested, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

During this time, there was a decade-long tuition freeze. 

Evers had proposed a $305 million increase for the UW system during the 2023-25 budget, but Republican lawmakers cut state funding for campuses by $32 million in an effort to defund diversity and inclusion offices. 

That money was later released as part of a controversial deal to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, knows as DEI. 

On Monday, PROFS, which stands for Public Representation Organization of the UW-Madison Faculty Senate, sent a letter to Rothman and the regents asking them to approve Evers’ request for the 2025-27 biennial budget. 

“With a state budget surplus of more than $3 billion, Wisconsin can afford the $800 million investment,” the letter states. “The truth is the state cannot afford to not make the investment. After all, as many Regents and others have said on numerous occasions, the Universities of Wisconsin are the engines that drive our state’s economy.”