At the Faculty Senate Monday, University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank spoke to faculty about the current “state of the university” addressing issues of budget, tenure and shared governance.

Budget

Due to the large budget cuts, Blank said UW was handed a $86 million deficit that was effective July 1.

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But Blank said this is not anything new, and states around the country have been cutting back on higher education. This is something that has been happening for 25 years, she said.

To make up for the deficit, Blank said the university has asked the Board of Regents to increase the cap of out-of-state tuition for the next two years as well as raise the number of out-of-state students allowed to attend the university.

Blank further cited the importance of being able to attract students to the university from the state of Wisconsin to keep them in-state.

Tenure

After discussing the primary issues of the budget, Blank moved on to discuss the issues of tenure that have many faculty at the university greatly concerned.

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Blank said although the removal of the state law that protected tenure put UW in line with other state schools, the law change also allowed for faculty to be laid off for a number of reasons.

UW has been working on creating a policy that is not only consistent with its peers, but also with the standards of the American Association of University Professors, Blank said.

Blank mentioned that the policy the faculty senate was discussing was only pertinent to UW and not the entire UW System.

Shared Governance

Blank said in addition to budget and tenure changes, there have been changes made to shared governance.

As part of the many changes to the new budget, a motion made by the Joint Finance Committee proposed new limits on shared governance.

But Blank said despite the state changes, she did not foresee any reason why current practices or standards at UW of shared governance should follow.

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Blank said she had also written to shared governance groups to let them know that the university had no reason to change shared governance policies.

Blank concluded her speech again emphasizing the point of creating a sustainable financial plan for the future of UW.

“There are lots of reasons why it matters that we keep this university strong and thriving. One important reason is that we continue to provide access to a world-class education for a diverse group of students,” Blank said.