Chancellor John Wiley commended efforts to urge the state budget conference committee to pass a budget sufficient for UW-Madison, but again stressed the need for enough funds at his State of the University address Monday.
I think we've done about as thorough and effective a job as we possibly can in getting the message out,"" Wiley said at a Faculty Senate meeting. ""We've had an extraordinary outpouring of help this time around.""
He mentioned newspaper editorials, the writings of trustees, the president of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the many faculty and staff, and more than 30,000 alumni and campus-related business leaders from every city in Wisconsin that have shown support for Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed budget for the UW System.
Last week, Wiley sent a letter to legislators in the budget conference committee saying major and detrimental cuts would have to be made at the university if enough money is not passed soon.
""Every day since July 1, we've been spending money we don't have,"" Wiley said. ""By the end of the year, if we don't get a budget, we'll be about $36 million in the hole.""
Over the summer, the UW System Board of Regents operated on the figure that the system would receive $180 million from the budget, with $70 million going to UW-Madison, as Doyle had requested in his proposal.
Wiley commended Doyle, saying, ""The governor submitted a budget that was probably the best one we've had in at least six years, as far as the university is concerned.""
However, while the Democrat-controlled Senate's version of the budget approves this amount, the Republican-controlled Assembly's version only calls for $62 million for the entire UW System.
Jack O'Meara, a lobbyist for UW-Madison and legislative representative from the Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate, said that conferences on the university's budget were taking place today.
""The big problem really in this is such a huge budget with all sorts of policies in it - some they don't like, some they do like - they're still trying to negotiate at this point.""
Looking ahead to next year, Wiley concluded that the worst-case scenario would be cutting down on the number of freshman admitted to UW-Madison.
Wiley said by December, half of all freshmen that plan to attend UW-Madison next year will be admitted, with 80 percent by February. He said there is concern about whether or not this process needs to slow down.
