Today the UC was joined by Provost Britz, and we discussed a variety of issues but focused mostly on the details of the newly released budget proposal from the Governor’s office. The proposed budget would include a 5% tuition cut for instate undergraduates, which the state would backfill. There is also a proposed allocation of $100 million roughly divided between making up for the previous lapse and new funding that will be “performance based.”

According to the Governor’s press release: “$42.5 million for performance funding. The Board of Regents must distribute these funds among UW System institutions based on their performance on rankings related to improving affordability and attainability, enhancing work readiness, ensuring student success in the workforce, administrative efficiency, service, and two additional criteria to be specified by the Board of Regents. To ensure transparency in the allocation of performance funding, each institution will publish a ‘Performance Funding Report Card.’”

The press release also includes a section titled “Holding UW System Faculty Accountable,” which describes the following: “Require the UW Board of Regents to establish a faculty workload policy. Their plan must include policies for monitoring faculty and instructional academic staff teaching workloads, including requirements for individual faculty and instructional academic staff members to report the number of hours spent teaching to UW System administration. The plan must also develop policies for rewarding faculty and instructional academic staff who go above and beyond by teaching more than the standard academic load. This information would be made public and included in annual accountability reports.”

UW-System President Ray Cross’s response is here.

In the Chair’s report, John Reisel mentioned that Joan Prince, Vice Chancellor of Global Inclusion and Engagement, is organizing both internal and external events on free speech, and CSOWG held an open forum.