The Joint Finance Committee held a public hearing on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus Thursday, and despite a smaller than expected turnout, testimony on the governor’s new budget proposal for the next biennium was filled with passion.

The hearing began at 10 a.m. inside the Quandt Fieldhouse, where the meeting was moved to from a smaller location. Bleachers were pulled out of the walls and chairs set on the basketball court in order to provide enough seating for the large number of participants expected. However, only 2,000 people came throughout the day, which was fewer than the university prepared for, UWSP spokesperson Stephen Ward said.

Gov. Scott Walker’s newest budget proposal for the next biennium continued to be a controversial issue throughout the day as testifiers, who were largely against the budget proposal, voiced their concerns on the large cuts to many social welfare programs and education at the UWSP hearing raised with the JFC members

UWSP Chancellor Bernie Patterson spoke to the committee in the afternoon. He said the mood inside the fieldhouse was very respectful.

“People were listening attentively to the speakers and applauding when they felt moved,” Patterson said. “It was very civil. The speakers were quite passionate and some moved to near tears.”

Patterson said his testimony consisted of three parts – the $250 million in cuts to higher education would be hard to absorb and lead to fewer classes, his faculty had not received a pay raise since 2008 and it was becoming increasingly hard to retain faculty in this state for all institutions, and the UW-Madison split from the System is a bad idea.

Other petitioners shared Patterson’s concerns with the cuts to education and specifically with cuts to public school districts.

Renee Craig-Odders, a UWSP Spanish professor, said the acrimony shown toward K-12 teachers in the governor’s budget proposal is egregious. She shared her disapproval with the charter school expansion and said the governor’s proposal to allow educators without Department of Public Instruction certification to teach in charter schools would turn out bad teachers.

Twenty-eight year Army veteran Joan Arnold said the budget’s treatment of renewable energy and natural resources was despicable.

“I was proud to say I was from Wisconsin because it was a progressive state that protected its resources and its people, but now I wonder,” Arnold said.