Members of the UW-Madison Faculty Senate met Monday to reaffirm their stance on domestic-partner benefits in the state and how budget cuts might affect the university.
Topics of concern included tuition, faculty salaries and domestic-partner benefits.
Chancellor Biddy Martin said Gov. Jim Doyle's budget included a proposed government deficiency reduction for the UW System. A 1 percent reduction in all funds, except for federal funds, will be administered throughout the UW System.
""This is the division of the governor's budget that's most difficult for us to grasp at this point,"" Martin said. ""What we don't yet know is whether we'll be responsible for the total amount of the 1 percent cut on all funds even though some of the funds will be exempt from the cut.""
The total amount of reduction for the entire UW System is estimated at $150 million dollars. However, Martin said depending on the nature of bargaining rights and rise of tuition over the next two years, a specific amount of the reduction will be re-set.Despite the budget cuts, Martin stressed it is ""absolutely not"" necessary to declare a fiscal emergency.
Several members of the senate responded to questions regarding future tuition and faculty salaries with the proposed budget cuts.
""Tuition should not be at the bottom [of the peer group] given the quality of this institution, nor should faculty salaries be at the bottom of the peer group,"" Martin said. ""We have to work hard to make improvements.""
Though Martin is not ""suggesting everything is rosy,"" she anticipates ""we will be in about as good a position as one could hope to be in this environment.""
At the end of the meeting, professor of human ecology Ann Hoyt addressed the inclusion of domestic-partner benefits in Doyle's recent budget proposal.
""We're very pleased to see that the governor's budget includes them, and we feel that it's important to cross the professional representation of the Faculty Senate.""
The Faculty Senate voted unanimously in support of including domestic-partner benefits in the budget.
