Name: UW System leader calls for academic cuts, layoffs, online advances to survive in post-pandemic world
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UW System leader calls for academic cuts, layoffs, online advances to survive in post-pandemic world

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Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe leader of the University of Wisconsin System unveiled Thursday that radically re-imagines the network of schools that has been in place for a half-century.President Ray Cross, declaring that immediate action&nbsp;is crucial to the survival of the System, called for consolidating&nbsp;academic programs, streamlining&nbsp;business operations and scaling up online degree programs across the state.The proposal requires&nbsp;all campuses except for UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, to complete a review of academic offerings by the end of 2020, opening the way for program cuts, staff reductions and new investment&nbsp;to&nbsp;"provide greater institutional distinctiveness and identity."It also requires campuses to more rapidly centralize administrative functions&nbsp; — like&nbsp;IT and&nbsp;human resources&nbsp;—&nbsp;and calls for the creation of&nbsp;a uniform online learning model that can serve working adults and traditional undergraduates.The proposal was presented to the Board of Regents on Thursday afternoon.In an interview with reporters prior to making the plan public, Cross said there was no "magic number" he was hoping to reach in terms of cuts or cost savings.&nbsp;Cross's plan&nbsp;calls for&nbsp;universities to revise or update their mission statements. He&nbsp;echoed the words of UW-Stevens Point&nbsp; from less than two years ago, saying that each comprehensive university in the UW System could not keep being "all things to all people.""If we want the system to survive on the other side of this&nbsp;pandemic ... we've got to act now," Cross said. "We just don't have the time."Campuses will retain "basic"&nbsp;courses like English, Cross said, but they will be encouraged to develop their own specialties and work with other universities when collaboration makes sense. In other words, a student&nbsp;at UW-Eau Claire might major in a subject that its faculty has developed into a strength, but might also take unrelated online courses not based in Eau Claire to progress toward a degree."It is possible that there will be minimal cuts on one campus and larger program reductions on others," Cross said.With the changes, Cross said, will come employee cuts."We don't know the impact of COVID-19, but there is a growing, clear sense that we must make serious reductions in order to be viable and to offer a quality education," Cross said."Layoffs will be inevitable," he said.Cross's push for change comes&nbsp;as colleges and universities across the country fear for their existence in a post-pandemic world.&nbsp;This week,&nbsp;Holy Family College, , became the first school of higher learning in Wisconsin to announce it would close.It also comes before the most recent push for consolidation&nbsp;— linking the two-year and four-year campuses&nbsp;— has even been fully implemented. Cross, who is scheduled to retire this year, said that's not enough.Asked if any UW schools were at risk of closing due to financials, Cross said no, because they were part of the larger system."If some of these were individual campuses, we'd be looking at this differently, or they would be," he said.Cross acknowledged the timeline to&nbsp;reevaluate and implement academic programs&nbsp;changes by the fall of 2021 is "pretty aggressive."But financial challenges campuses face&nbsp;are also rapidly mounting.Campus leaders already have been grappling with major losses, starting with room and board refunds in the millions, the&nbsp;costs of moving to online or remote learning, and dwindling revenues from social and sports events.&nbsp;Most UW schools have implemented employee furloughs.Many campus leaders told the Journal Sentinel over the past months that money from the CARES Act aimed at supporting campus operations&nbsp;— $47 million across the System&nbsp;— would help offset those costs.&nbsp;But then&nbsp; Gov. Tony Evers announced a 5% state spending cut that would require one-time paybacks by the end of June.&nbsp;Estimates of that cost have been floating around the system since: UW-Oshkosh and UW-Eau Claire are&nbsp;planning for $2.5 million,&nbsp;UW-Milwaukee $6 million to $8 million and UW-Madison nearly $20 million.On Wednesday, the state Department of Administration confirmed that it was seeking $45.8&nbsp;million from the UW System, threatening to wipe out any gains campuses may have anticipated from CARES Act stimulus.Longer term, the situation is even more insecure. The in-state tuition freeze is ongoing,&nbsp;anticipated cuts in state spending are on the horizon, and there is still no clarity on whether campuses will be able to reopen in the fall. In addition, there is the specter of dwindling enrollment in the years ahead because of demographic changes.The financial struggles at several campuses, combined with projected enrollment declines nationally beginning in 2026, had already forced university campuses to consider how they would attract the students of the future.But this&nbsp;plan calls for fast, centralized changes.Campus autonomy is cherished in the UW System and enshrined in the , which requires the Board of Regents to "promote&nbsp;the widest degree of institutional autonomy" within the constraints of system and board policies.Jon Shelton, Vice President of Higher Education for the AFT-Wisconsin union and professor at UW-Green&nbsp;Bay,&nbsp;expressed concerns about broad, centralized decisions putting students at a disadvantage."The plan would be especially tough on first-generation students&nbsp;and those with limited means," Shelton said in a statement. "Our members are going to fight like hell to protect the Wisconsin Idea, and to make&nbsp;sure all students&nbsp;have access to the academic programs they need and want, and not just the elite."But in this situation there are strengths in a more centralized approach, Cross said, allowing system leaders to look&nbsp;at where programs and services are redundant across campuses."This process is designed to help each campus look at themselves in an objective way," he said.Board approval will be required along the way, especially if campuses change their mission.Investment in new programs, including online degree programs, will be key for preparing for the future, he added. Those programs will seek to expand the reach of programs the public colleges are known for, especially to the growing number of "non-traditional" students, including adult learners. Cross said the system currently only captures 5% to 8% of the market share in the upper Midwest."Other national institutions have invested heavily in marketing their online programs while we have been hesitant," Cross said.&nbsp;"We must accelerate now, or risk being left behind, perhaps for good."Many faculty were quick to express their displeasure with the plan Thursday. Nick Fleisher, an associate professor at UWM and president of the&nbsp;American Association of University Professors-Wisconsin, said the plan was had "no educational merit."&nbsp;"Ray Cross’s plan is to have the UW regional comprehensive campuses compete against each other for the right to house various programs," Fleisher said.&nbsp;"Regents and legislators have talked about this for several years, and now they are taking advantage of the pandemic to try to do it."In a virtual board meeting Thursday, several regents&nbsp;spoke in favor of the plan.&nbsp;"This is the time for governance and for the our role as the board of regents&nbsp;to support what we need to do to keep this system safe and to keep it growing and to keep it to be the best asset in the state of Wisconsin," Regent Tracey Klein said.Regent Karen Walsh questioned Cross on how the system would proceed with the plan without "mowing down shared governance in the process.""I'd hate to see us lose part of what makes us a great university system, the input&nbsp;of the faculty and staff," Walsh said.Cross said there would be possibilities to engage faculty&nbsp;and stakeholder&nbsp;groups.But some faculty were not convinced."There’s simply no way that can happen in anything like a thoughtful way on the timeline proposed by President Cross," Matt Jewell, a professor at UW-Eau Claire, said.&nbsp;"It’s not just a matter of faculty having their say. This kind of reorganization requires input from the businesses, organizations, and communities we serve, in addition to the students and families who have already made clear their idea of the ideal size of each UW school by voting with their feet and attending those institutions."Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 or . Follow her on Twitter at .

Milwaukee Journal SentinelThe leader of the University of Wisconsin System unveiled Thursday that radically re-imagines the network of schools that has been in place for a half-century.President Ray Cross, declaring that immediate action&nbsp;is crucial to the survival of the System, called for consolidating&nbsp;academic programs, streamlining&nbsp;business operations and scaling up online degree programs across the state.The proposal requires&nbsp;all campuses except for UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, to complete a review of academic offerings by the end of 2020, opening the way for program...

UW System leader calls for academic cuts, layoffs, online advances to survive in post-pandemic world

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