UW System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Platteville Chancellor David Markee met with reporters yesterday to discuss recent cost-saving and efficiency measures proposed to the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau Tuesday.
Reilly’s plans incorporate over 250 efficiency measures and the reduction of 225 administrative positions, a proposal that is expected to save Wisconsin taxpayers nearly $15 million annually. In addition, the UW System’s Board of Regents has also developed proposals that could save taxpayers an estimated $2.1 million annually.
The measures have not disrupted Reilly’s intention to keep student access open. The UW System has enrolled 10,000 more students over the past decade, the equivalent of UW-Eau Claire’s total enrollment.
Campuses around the UW System have recently used technology to save money by reducing positions, according to Markee.
According to the report to LAB, student registration, advising and grading services have all been automated, saving both system and taxpayer money.
“When you have 80 percent tied into personnel, you have to look into positions for big savings,” Markee said.
One UW campus reported saving as much as $10,000 on such measures alone, according to the report.
However, the cuts have had an effect on the quality of students’ education, Reilly said.
Both chancellors and several other colleagues of Reilly’s have been aiming to minimize those damages.
“It’s [a] constant juggling act,” Reilly said. “If you keep doing this, you’re going to get to a point where you really do damage to [students’] experience.”
As a result, Reilly said these measures have sent a clear message to the Legislature.
“The deeper [the UW System] has to go, the more damage there will be,” Reilly said.
Despite the cuts in administration and increase in enrollment, Reilly said the UW System intends to increase baccalaureate degrees because of the immense impact such degrees could have on the state.
According to a September 2004 report to the Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion, a state’s per-capita income is directly correlated with the number of baccalaureate degree holders in a population.
The proposal draws facts from 2001 statistics that placed Wisconsin 30th with 24.7 percent of citizens holding degrees and an average annual income of $29,270. Wisconsin is below the national average.
Reilly said in order to reach the national average, Wisconsin must generate at least 72,000 more university students. Because baccalaureate degree holders are expected to make $1 million more in their lifetime than non-degree holders, Reilly suggested that as much as $72 billion more could be applied to the state’s economy.
“That’s why we are so loathed to cut back on access — we are desperately trying to increase the number of baccalaureate degrees,” Reilly said.
However, Reilly added, “If the number keeps rising, and the support keeps going down, at some point [we] will have a quality crisis.”
