UW-Oshkosh will make a $2.4 million budget cut to prepare for the addition of UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley as satellite campuses while the UW System’s restructures in two-year colleges.
Over the next two years, UW-Oshkosh plans to cut spending by over $9.5 million to reduce the deficit it has faced since 2014. In an email sent to the university community, UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt explained that the university’s spending was “not sustainable.”
UW-Oshkosh’s budget problems stem from the decline in enrollment at both the university and the overall UW System, which has seen a two percent decrease in enrollment from 2016 to 2017, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Over the last six years, the undergraduate headcount at UW-Oshkosh has declined by 15 percent, causing an estimated $9.6 million loss in tuition.
The decline in enrollment along with the freeze on in-state tuition has necessitated the need for cuts, according to the report. Nearly 95 percent of students pay in-state tuition at UW-Oshkosh.
In 2017, UW-Oshkosh had a $13.5 million hole in the budget, with revenue at $135.9 million and expenses at $149.4 million. While the university hasn’t announced specifics on what exactly will get cut, layoffs are an option, according to the report.
With UW System’s announced restructuring, Leavitt made it clear that this was UW-Oshkosh’s “independent” decision with help from the University Resource Alignment Committee and that it will restructure the budget by July 2018.
“As a result of working together to develop long-term solutions, this institution will be on solid and sustainable footing,” Leavitt said in a blog post Monday announcing the “fiscal transformation.”
The first cut is just one part of a three part plan. The next phase will reduce a further $6 million in spending in the next two years, along with a plan to raise $1 million in revenue.
With the recommendations, UW-Oshkosh hopes to reduce spending by $9.5 million by 2020 in hopes of benefiting off a projected rebound in enrollment for that year. Leavitt hopes UWO’s changes will be a huge benefit for the university, and its recently announced partner two-year colleges.
“The outcome of our campus’s efforts will only make for a stronger new institution—three campuses, one university—once we join with UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac,” Leavitt said.
