Free UW chancellors to manage benefits

John Torinus

The faculty at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (UWM) has received no general raises over the last five years, so it has become a target for poaching. The campus has lost 40 faculty members recently to competing institutions.

Crippled from of a decade of major cuts from governors and legislatures of both parties, the entire university system is in a financial straight jacket.

Leadership at UWM is trying to fund $2 million as a stop-gap to retain good professors, but needs as much as $18 million to bring pay levels up to par.

Lots of luck. The 2013-2015 state budget, now in the making, has already been hammered by a request from Dennis Smith, the governor's secretary for health services, requested an increase of more than $650 million for Medicaid over the two years. That bloated request will chew up much of the new revenue dollars coming from the meager growth in the economy and will crowd out investments in big priorities like education.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 9, 2012 1:27 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas