It consumed the thoughts of citizens throughout Wisconsin'a budgetary crisis with a $1.1 billion deficit. At the end of January, Gov. Scott McCallum announced that the deficit in the biennial budget would have to mean cuts to all areas of the state. It developed into a fierce battle between the UW System and Assembly Republicans, with the latter slashing UW's budget by more than $100 million, more than twice what McCallum had proposed.
Before anybody knew just how a move like this might impact UW-Madison, the UW System Board of Regents acted quickly and froze admissions system-wide'a move with more consequences for some UW System schools than others, hardly affecting UW-Madison, which had completed most of its admissions a month earlier.
Just days later, UW System President Katharine Lyall instituted a hiring freeze throughout the system.
After two weeks, the regents lifted the admissions freeze. Individuals from all sides accused the others of scare tactics and rash actions.
At the end of March, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the university might not remain in the top ten public universities in the United States if the Assembly budget proposal went into effect and public funding decreased.
While Senate Democrats vowed to restore most of UW's funding, cuts of some magnitude to the UW System are inevitable. Their specific consequences to UW-Madison will only come once the state Legislature's conference committee passes the final budget package'an action that students will see before the beginning of the fall semester.
