Chancellor’s Update: Compensation Plan and Progress on Initiatives

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Dear Faculty and Staff,

Whether it’s been the Wisconsin State Fair, a festival, biking, gardening or soaking in the warm temperatures, I hope that you were able to take advantage of the enjoyable offerings of August. This is the third and final summer update to keep you apprised of progress on our three-year plan of budget initiatives announced in April.

The amount of the previously announced 2016-17 faculty and staff compensation plan, utilizing one-time funding for lump-sum payments, has not yet been finalized but will be at least 1.5% of an employee’s base salary, with a minimum payment of $1,000 for full-time employees. The determination of the final amount will be announced in September. Eligibility for a lump-sum payment is tied, in part, to an employee’s qualification as a solid performer. To allow units to start gathering solid performer information for anticipated November payments, Lump-sum Compensation Adjustment Guidelines have been sent to schools, colleges and divisions. Please read the guidelines for details on eligibility, solid performance determination, timing and other conditions of this one-time lump-sum payment.

On a related note, to support research and provide market-competitive compensation, UWM has dedicated additional resources for Teaching Assistant salaries. In addition to the 1% increase provided in 2014-15, UWM is now committing an additional $692,000 in base funding to increase a higher minimum starting salary and enhance consistency across campus, starting this fall. (This paragraph was updated Sept. 8)

UW System will make a request for a 2017-19 compensation plan at the Board of Regents meeting in December, the usual time for such proposals. The compensation request will be included in the UW System 2017-19 biennial budget request.

We reduced expenditures for the 2015-16 fiscal year by approximately $31 million year over year. Expenditures naturally vary from year to year based on a unit’s own operating deficits and revenue changes, in addition to the biennium’s GPR budget cuts. Nevertheless, we saw significant reductions across the campus and in every type of operation. Salaries and fringe benefit expenses decreased over $15 million (over 4% from 2015), S&E expenditures shrunk by over $12 million (over 13%) and other expenses, including capital, decreased about $5 million (over 13%). The campus’s collective effort to reduce expenditures was remarkable.

Despite the progress made this last year in closing our operating deficit, based on information collected from schools, colleges and units this spring, about one-third to half of the reductions were temporary, not permanent. Also, we are continuing to see additional declines in our total number of students as the large classes from several years ago continue to graduate. Thus, we must work to ensure that our reductions in both base and one-time expenditures continue and that we move to close the remainder of our operating deficit. Some of the efforts toward that end are described below.

We have eliminated 3.25 Vice Chancellor and Associate/Assistant Vice Chancellor positions; our goal was four. Also, we have reduced limited positions by 15.24; our goal was 16. Existing and future vacancies will address the remaining reductions, however we will continue to recruit for positions that promote priorities in student success, research excellence, and community engagement.

Progress and discussions on the Strategic Position Control (SPC) process continue. Campus units are currently creating SPC plans for 2016-17 that are due in October. The SPC Committee, led by APBC Chair Professor William (Hobey) Davies, has approved a template for the SPC targets that will be met by each school, college and division. Actual targets for continued reductions are being developed over the next month.

The Integrated Support Services Project (ISSP) is developing preliminary recommendations, which will be presented to project sponsors next month. Thereafter, there will be broad campus communication and numerous additional opportunities for campus input, including a series of open forums and regular updates to governance groups.

The Provost continues to lead discussions on school/college alignment, implementing the Faculty Workload Policy into each school and college’s workload policies with an update due in mid-October, and the reduction of course duplication. Details on these initiatives will be shared when the academic year resumes.

In addition to reducing expenses, we also are focusing on raising revenues including improvements to enrollment and retention. For context, a 1% change in student headcount has an average overall impact of about $3M to UWM’s budget. The Chancellor’s Enrollment Management Action Team (CEMAT) hosted its annual retreat on Aug. 17 to discuss implementation of the new Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plan, a multi-year initiative funded with $1.175M to improve enrollment and retention rates, and increase revenues. See retreat materials including a summary of the retreat discussion which focused on everyone’s collective responsibility to support students and tell the UWM story. In addition to the SEM initiative as it relates to our Wisconsin and domestic students, we are continuing to work towards establishing a relationship with an international pathways provider that would facilitate an increase in international students on our campus, potentially as early as fall of 2017.

There have been news reports of the possibility of the current four-year UW tuition freeze continuing in the 2017-19 biennial budget. Early in 2017 we will learn if the Governor’s draft budget includes this proposal. College affordability is critically important to UWM. At the same time, our future depends on appropriate budgeting. We will continue advocacy of state investment in UWM in the coming months.

As we delve into the academic year, we will continue using our strategic directions of student success, research excellence and community engagement to guide our actions, including budget. Thank you for your efforts as we address the imposed reductions and balancing our budget. I will provide more updates at the Fall Plenary Address on Sept. 15. In the meantime, I hope you have a good transition into the fall semester and enjoy the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

Best regards,

Mark A. Mone
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee