Dear UWM Colleagues,
I hope your semester is off to a rewarding and energizing start. Today, I want to update you on our budget situation and the steps we are taking to strengthen our campus for the future.
Refreshed 2030 Action Plan
As many of you know, we refreshed our 2030 Action Plan to address new and emerging challenges while maintaining our core commitments. Leading this effort are Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Dave Clark and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Canan Bilen-Green, who will serve as the co-leads moving forward. We have four strategic commitments guiding our actions: Students’ Academic & Personal Journey; Positive Employee Experience; Research, Innovation & Community Impact; and Fiscal Sustainability & Economically Anchoring Southeastern Wisconsin.
Several new initiatives are underway, many of which have grown from the extensive work done by over 100 campus participants who started our 2030 efforts in 2019. Examples include:
- Boost enrollment: The university’s new strategic enrollment management framework will activate a Recruitment Council and a Retention Council to address challenges and maximize our resources to drive enrollment.
- Improve retention: Academic Affairs is enhancing our student success infrastructure and exploring implementation of the Advising Coordination & Standardization proposal from the Academic Services & Advising Leadership Council (ASALC). A Student Success Summit will be held on Oct. 4 to provide actionable strategies aimed at enhancing student success and learning outcomes in the classroom.
- Academic portfolio review: Provost Andrew Daire is charging a task force to conduct an academic program array analysis to ensure our offerings align with student and workforce demands.
- Optimize instructional and research workload: Not only will this improve our academic effectiveness and fiscal sustainability, but workload equity is also a priority. Vice Provost Bilen-Green will lead this important effort with full governance participation.
The initiatives above will be led by Academic Affairs, with institution-wide input, as appropriate.
Deloitte report
In addition to our 2030 Plan, I want to highlight the findings from Deloitte’s recent report of the financial and operating assessments of UWM. The review identified several key areas of opportunity, many of which align with initiatives already in progress. These opportunities include leveraging our strengths to boost enrollment, improving student retention, reviewing our academic portfolio for sustainability, optimizing instructional workloads, and using data to drive decisions and foster accountability. They align with our refreshed 2030 Action Plan.
2025-27 state operating and capital budgets
Last month, the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved an $855 million biennial operating budget request, and the Board also voted in favor of a $1.761 billion biennial capital budget request. We are working closely with the UWs on our proposals, which include critical capital projects for UWM. These include the completion of the Health Sciences renovation in the Northwest Quad, planning for the new engineering and neuroscience building, and renovations to Sandburg Hall.
The operating budget request includes 5% and 3% wage increases over the next two years for both faculty and staff, fully funded by the state.
There is a long process ahead and we will not know the results of this request until next summer. The UWs will submit the operating budget request to the Wisconsin Department of Administration and the capital budget request to the Wisconsin Department of Administration and State Building Commission. Early in 2025, Gov. Tony Evers will submit the proposed operating and capital budgets to the Wisconsin State Legislature, which will consider the budget throughout the spring. We are advocating strongly for these budget proposals in the months ahead.
Fiscal year 2026 budget planning (and FY25 cuts)
Although an increased investment from the UWs would help UWM, even if approved as the Board requested, it will not address all our challenges. In the current year, Fiscal Year 2025, we are asking administrative units to implement a 0.9% midyear budget cut due to lower-than-expected enrollments in graduate and international students this fall. Schools and colleges are also adjusting their budgets according to their actual graduate enrollment.
Looking ahead to 2026, all divisions will receive official budget allocations in January, after divisional budget meetings this fall. However, for planning purposes, colleges should plan on changes consistent with guidance shared as part of the Five-Year Budget Model Review for their college, and administrative units have been asked to incorporate a 2% reduction into their planning, at this early point in the process and until more is known about the state operating budget. More information can be found in this annual budget message from Provost Andrew Daire and Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administrative Affairs Robin Van Harpen to deans and division heads. They will also be holding a series of budget town hall meetings on Oct. 14, Oct. 23 and Oct. 28. Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to attend one of the sessions.
I know these are not easy times, but we must approach these challenges with urgency and bold decisions. I am confident that together, we can continue to strengthen our campus and ensure a bright future for UWM.
Thank you for your continued dedication to our students and our mission.
Best regards,
Mark A. Mone, PhD
Chancellor