EDUCATION

UW System's proposed operating budget mirrors GOP state lawmakers' agenda

Karen Herzog

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin System's proposed $6.3 billion operating budget for the next two fiscal years reads like a page out of the GOP state lawmakers' playbook.

Republican lawmakers for years have been pushing an economic, job-focused, student success accountability agenda for the UW System in exchange for taxpayer dollars.

The request the UW System will put forward for $107.5 million in new state funding over the next two years — $82.5 million in "outcomes-based" funding and $25 million to expand programs mostly in STEM and high-demand fields — is framed around "university and statutorily required goals."

Key phrases repeated throughout the 68-page budget document: student success, workforce development and operational efficiencies — phrases that are practical and, many would say, in line with the direction higher education needs to go.

Others worry about who is setting the agenda — UW System's leaders who are trained in higher education or lawmakers, who control the purse strings.

"There's lots of subliminal and non-subliminal messages in this for the governor's campaign," said Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison), a state lawmaker since 1998 and a member of the Legislature's Committee on Colleges and Universities.

"I see a campaign document: 'We're going to make the university work harder to create jobs,' as if the university hasn't already been doing that ... "

Berceau said the UW System operates with an underlying fear of being punished by lawmakers if its message and focus aren't on-point. "It's become autocratic; Republican lawmakers tell the university what to do."

All current members of the UW System Board of Regents, except for two ex-officio members, were appointed by Gov. Scott Walker.

Economic impact touted

The 2019-'21 budget points to a study that concluded the UW System contributes $24 billion to the state's economy each year — a 23-fold return on each dollar Wisconsin invests in the university.

The UW System's budget, which the Board of Regents will consider during a meeting in Madison on Thursday, asks for authority to plan and design five major building projects related to the fields of health and STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Those projects include a science and technology innovation center at UW-River Falls, a science and health building at UW-Eau Claire, an engineering building expansion at UW-Milwaukee, an engineering building at UW-Madison, and an academic building addition and renovation at UW-Whitewater.

Altogether, the UW System is seeking $1.7 billion in borrowing authority over the next two fiscal years for new buildings or to repair, renovate and/or replace aging buildings on campuses. (The projects total $1.9 billion, including gifts and donations put toward them.)

Walker has said if he is re-elected in November, he wants to continue for another four years a tuition freeze that will enter its sixth year this fall.

Average cost of attendance will still increase this fall by 1% for resident freshmen because of increases in fees and room and board.

While the state recently provided 4.04% pay increases for UW System employees over two years, state funding for the UW System as a whole has declined significantly in the past 11 years.

That decrease, along with a six-year tuition freeze, has limited UW's ability to expand or create programming, UW officials have repeatedly said.

Building, fixing and remodeling campuses

The capital budget request includes $463.9 million in bonding authority to renovate, expand and replace six academic facilities and five utility and central plant projects around the UW System.

Another $300 million would go into existing buildings with high-priority maintenance, repair and renovation needs.

The UW System is asking for an adjustment of the borrowing terms of four major new buildings already in the planning stages. By shifting from a traditional 20-year borrowing period to 30 years, it would reduce the annual cost to students by lowering their fees and extending the financing over a longer time frame.

The trade-off in lowering annual cost to students is that it would increase total project costs by adding 10 years of interest payments.

Those buildings include a new residence hall and a fieldhouse for sports at UW-La Crosse; replacement of the natatorium/gymnasium at UW-Madison; and a new student health and wellness facility at UW-Stevens Point.

UW-Stevens Point is seeking $25.2 million in the next biennium to replace its current, 67-year-old student health and wellness center with a new facility that could add soccer, rugby, softball and football practice fields.

A new, $129.5 million chemistry and biochemistry building for UW-Milwaukee is at the top of the UW System's capital projects building requests for individual campuses. The building would replace an obsolete 1972 chemistry building, officials said.

More than 2,400 students take undergraduate chemistry each academic year and current facilities limit the number of students who can take courses and don't provide a safe environment for modern chemistry instruction, officials said.

UWM's $35 million funding request to repair the Student Union also is on the list of projects to move forward in the 2019-'21 biennium.

Last fiscal year, the UW System got more than half the bonding authority it wanted for capital projects, and it also got money for major maintenance, repairs and renovations to aging buildings that had been cut from the state's last biennial budget.

All told, the UW System last fiscal year got $310.9 million of the $344.6 million it sought for major building projects supported by taxpayer borrowing; $100 million for taxpayer-funded maintenance, repairs and smaller projects; and $163.7 million of the $191.7 million it requested for capital projects supported by program revenue that campuses generate.