Last week, the University Committee surveyed the faculty on their knowledge of, attitudes toward, and concerns about the recently announced Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). For details on the VSIP, see the links below.

We’d like to report results from the VSIP Survey. We received responses from 276 people, about a third of the faculty.

•86% of the respondents were aware of the program.
•17% of the respondents think they are eligible to participate.
•29% support the program as proposed.
•26% think it is a good step for solving campus budget problems.
•60% think the program will hurt the academic progress of students.

The survey was conducted before the official determination of who was eligible to participate. The administration has now reported that overall 232 employees are eligible for the program. Of these 90 are faculty. Our results indicate 46 respondents to the survey felt they were eligible. If the survey results are representative, roughly half of the eligible faculty responded to the survey. In other words, a higher proportion of those who thought they were eligible responded to the survey compared with the overall response rate. Inferences about ultimate participation should be treated with caution. With this caveat in mind, the survey results suggest that 24% of the faculty who thought they were eligible expressed interest in participating, so an estimate of roughly 20-25 faculty participants in the program could be expected. Seven percent of the faculty who do not think they are eligible also expressed interest in participating.

One hundred and four faculty provided written comments as well. We are in the process of interpreting these. We hope to provide updated information in the days ahead.

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On April 13, Chancellor Mark Mone announced a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) at UWM as a means to address our impending budget cuts. Details on the program are available here: http://uwm.edu/news/PDFs/VSIP/UWM_VSIP.pdf
http://uwm.edu/news/PDFs/VSIP/VSIP_FAQ_s.pdf
http://uwm.edu/news/PDFs/VSIP/VSIP_Timeline.pdf

Updated information (April 24) from the Chancellor is available here:
https://uwm.edu/budget/chancellor/chancellors-update-on-vsip-participation/