Nearly 2,000 University of Wisconsin students received need-based financial aid this fall from the Fund For Wisconsin Scholars, announced the UW System Board of Regents Thursday.
According to Board of Regents President Kevin Reilly, $1.76 million was granted to students in need of financial aid.
UW System spokesperson David Giroux said the fund was a gift to the university from John and Tashia Morgridge.
Giroux added similar numbers are projected for the spring semester, which will result in a total of $3 million in need-based aid granted to Wisconsin colleges over the course of the academic year.
About $300,000 of the yearly aid will be allocated to students at UW-Madison alone, according to Reilly.
“We fully expect the fund to continue and to grow,” Giroux said. “Our campus foundation is working on various kinds of fundraising campaigns to provide more need-based aid.”
Although the economic climate has made all aspects of fundraising a challenge, the campus has made raising money for financial aid a top priority, according to Giroux.
Rebecca Martin, senior vice president of UW System Administration, also presented a one-year update on the UW System Growth Agenda for Wisconsin.
The presentation included 10 steps of action the Board has taken thus far to improve the city of Madison.
These include efforts to enrich college preparation from kindergarten through 12th grade students, more successful methods to encourage students from two-year Wisconsin colleges to transfer into four-year programs and new modes to attract and employ more college educated workers.
“I’m very pleased with the UW System’s growth progress,” Martin said. “I believe now more than ever we need to leverage the assets of the UW system to improve the outlook of our state.”
Reilly added none of the projects under the growth agenda have required new state resources.
“We’ve reallocated resources where necessary, we’ve got funding coming in and have been able to attract substantial funding from outside foundations and benefited enormously from enthusiastic support,” Reilly said.
The UW System is also moving ahead with a new computer program to help manage its payroll, a priority of the committee.
According to Giroux, the 30-year-old current system that deals with 26 different campus payrolls is extremely outdated. The committee is implementing a multimillion-dollar multiyear project to improve the system’s efficiency.
“When you add up all the faculty, staff and student employees we’re talking 60,000 people who need to be on payroll and need to be managed,” Giroux said. “Right now we’re at the stage where we are doing a very detailed assessment and we’ll come back once the planning phase is done with a more comprehensive plan.”
Giroux added that $8 million was budgeted towards new system planning, which will last until the summer. Until then, project specifics, projected cost and timeline will remain tentative.
“We’re only going to move ahead once we’re satisfied that the planning has been thorough,” Giroux said. “We’ve identified all the challenges and we’re positive it will succeed.”
