UW-Madison will have to face the loss of $18 million more in funding this school year and over $7.5 million the year after. Officials learned Tuesday the state slashed more funding from the UW system.
The UW System will now be expected to absorb an additional $65.7 million budget cut this biennium, bringing total cuts to the system to over $300 million for 2011-13.
A provision in the state's biannual budget enabled it to apply additional ""lapses"" in the budget to state agencies. The state used the provision to cut an additional $175 million from the agencies.
The UW System will absorb 38 percent of the total budget cuts. Although it accounts for only 7 percent of the state's budget, the UW system has to cut $46.1 million in 2011-12 and 19.6 in 2012-13.
State Senator Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, the Education Committee Chair, said the Department of Administration made the cuts to make up for the lack of revenue in the state.
""Revenue has just been flat,"" Olsen said. ""They're concerned that those revenue increases are not going to be coming in to balance the books.""
UW System spokesperson David Giroux said campus-wide university officials are asking why the system is absorbing such a substantial proportion of the lapse.
""We really don't understand the rationale or the methodology behind this proportion of the cuts, why we were given this share,"" Giroux said. ""We really need to look into this more and find out what went into this, and that's the conversation we're starting right now.""
Giroux said system leaders are still determining how to deal with such substantial cuts.
""We just learned about this and have no idea how we're going to manage it,"" Giroux said.
The individual campuses will determine how to deal with their fragment of the cut.
UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Admissions Darrell Bazzell said the university is trying to determine how to absorb the cuts.
""We're still trying to understand the magnitude of the lapse and the rules around it, so it's probably premature to project what the impact is going to be,"" Bazzell said.
""We're just figuring this out like everyone else right now and trying to understand what options we have,"" he said.
Brad Barham, Chair of the Faculty Senate's University Committee, said while he knew additional budget cuts were possible, he had not heard that the cuts were being discussed.
""There had been no talk about it and given that it comes on the tail of a huge budget cut already this year it's a horrible situation,"" Barham said.
Barham said he feared the cuts proved the economy is not improving at the rate legislators had hoped.
""It's a very difficult time and I'm quite concerned about whether policy maker in both places, [Washington] D.C. and Madison, will make the decisions they need to make for the economy to recover.""
