In an effort to cut heavy costs resulting from cell phone usage, the University of Wisconsin Athletics Department announced Tuesday they switched plans to save as much as $100,000 per year.
According to department Spokesperson Steve Malchow, athletics officials were able to renegotiate a new deal with U.S. Cellular with the help of UW’s Division of Information Technology, to save 60 percent on cell phone charges.
“We’re all facing tough budgets, and you’d like to save money wherever you can,” Malchow said. “[U.S. Cellular has] created a different plan that will be cheaper for us, especially those that travel a lot.”
In addition to using U.S. Cellular’s SpanAmerican 800 Corporate Combined Plan, UW Athletics has cut 10 percent of the total cell phones used in the department, according to a release.
The response from the Athletics Department to cut excessive spending comes in response to a review made by the state’s Legislative Audit Bureau in February. According to the report, cell phone charges were nearing $3 million for the state. The UW System was responsible for $1 million in charges while UW-Madison garnered a total of $600,000.
State Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, said he hoped UW’s success would proliferate to the state government.
“Hard decisions have to be made as far as the assets the state owns,” said Cowles, who sits on the Joint Committees on Audit and Finance. “It’s going to be very difficult … we’re in a very challenging situation here, that’s why easy cuts [like cell phones are beneficial].”
Both UW Athletics and the state plan on continuing making additional cuts to excessive costs.
The state began earlier this year by trimming down the state’s car fleet by roughly 1,000 cars.
“Cars and cell phones and boats — anyplace they can find some savings, they should,” Cowles added.
UW Athletics began by moving fall football camp back to Camp Randall Stadium from the Bishop O’Conner Catholic Pastoral Center as well as internalizing UW Athletics’s Trading Tables service, which provides food service for UW Athletes.
“We fight the budget just like everybody else does, we’ve been getting great support for games,” Malchow said. “We try and stretch the dollar the best we can.”
