Several campus groups hosted a state budget roundtable Thursday to discuss Gov. Scott Walker's upcoming budget and the impact it will have on the UW system.
The panel of experts included state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, lawyer and lobbyist Peter Christiansen and Assistant to the Chancellor Don Nelson, who sought to provide the university community with a general understanding of Wisconsin's budget process.
""This year, high impact for higher education and public employees could be very harsh,"" Pocan said.
The lawmaker seemed hopeful about university's ability to cope with the upcoming budget cuts.
""This chancellor has done the best for outreach to state government,"" Pocan said of Chancellor Biddy Martin.
However, Pocan said he thinks this year's cuts will be much worse than any the university has faced in previous years.
Nelson stressed the importance understanding the budget process has on helping to advocate for the university. He also expressed concerns that new legislators may want to budget by ""policy grievance,"" and attack specific UW programs.
Nelson said the university must cooperate with Republican leadership sympathetic to higher education, who can keep legislation that would cut its budget under control.
""All it takes is one legislator pushing for something, and that can cost the university $10 million, easily,"" Pocan added.
Christiansen spoke with optimism of the New Badger Partnership, and said he believes it can potentially address finance issues over time. Currently, the university has to follow the same bureaucratic processes of other state agencies, and Christiansen hopes the program could distance the university from state government and work more efficiently for higher education.
The panelists remained resigned about the budget outlook, however.
""Ugly things are coming, we can't stop them,"" Nelson said. ""We're hopeful, because that's all that we can do.""
""My prediction is this will be the worst budget the university has seen since I've been around,"" Pocan said.
All three panelists agreed that the UW and Martin need to prepare strategies for the worst, and plan for large budget cuts across all schools and within UW-Madison.
