UWO grapples with staffing cuts as low enrollment, lack of state funding cripple university options
After experiencing a lack of substantial state funding and a decreased number in enrollment, UW-Oshkosh has racked up $18,000,000 in debt. As a result, the university is expecting to cut around 200 staff members. Furloughs and salary cuts are also expected to be issued this fall.
Dr. Dave Siemers, Political Science Professor at UWO and President of the United Faculty and Staff of Oshkosh, hypothesized as to what caused the current situation.
“Over the last twenty years, we have disinvested in our state university system. This is a choice by our state to defund our universities and commit to a program of austerity,” Siemers said. “UWO is in worse financial shape than any other UW school.”
Business Education teacher, Scott Mankiewicz, provides a simple perspective on the current situation.
“You take a look at the money coming in and the amount of money spent, with buildings and maintenance, and if your revenue isn’t going to increase year over year, then your liabilities and amount of money spent can’t decrease,” he said.
In UWO’s case, their revenue wasn’t enough to keep up with the amount of money spent. More and more high school graduates have been taking alternative routes to a four-year college education, according to Karl Boehler, the President of Senate and Academic staff at UWO.
“There are simply not as many graduating as ten years ago, five years ago. Because of the state of the economy right now, you can just walk out and find a $15 - $20 an-hour job,” he said. “If you're not exactly sure what you want to do with your life, that’s not a terrible option to take.”
There has been a noticeable decrease in numbers of students enrolled. Competition among other UW schools has also been driving the decline.
“A few years back, we were at 11,000 students, and now we’re at 8,000,” Boehler said. “Another thing is, Madison is accepting more undergrads. A decade ago, Madison had 30,000 undergrads. Now they have 40,000, so that's 10,000 more students that could have been going to the other schools.”
The main effects of this situation will be felt by the newly hired workers, members of the instructional academic staff, and those who teach Adjunct. Furloughs, or forced unpaid time off, have already been issued to professors. On top of this, many professors have been required to take up a heavier class load, some having to teach topics with little to no expertise on it. Siemers fears this will not only affect academic staff, but also contribute to the decline of student experience.
“Teaching a class doesn’t happen by magic,” he said. “Teaching a class takes preparation, individual attention to the students, keeping up with reading and the latest developments in your field. It means everything from taking a student to the counseling center, to taking care in grading their papers so they know better how to write. Now, what happens if you force me to teach more courses? I can’t do that. You can’t simply make people do more work and have the same quality.”
The lowered enrollment rate can be associated with the prospect of a lower quality education, as well as lack of financial aid for students.
“Years ago, when I did my undergraduate here in Wisconsin, we were top 10 in the nation for individual student funding from the legislature.” Boehler said. “We are now at number 43.”
Siemers emphasizes the huge change in financing.
“When I came here, the state paid for approximately half of the tuition bill of students,” he said. “Now, it’s more like 20%.”
Boehler finds that this lack in funding may jeopardize student futures.
“It’s really terrifying that the legislature has defunded that much,” he said. “Who that really hurts are the individual students because the students have to make up for that. Across the nation, that is why students are graduating with much higher student loan debt because if it doesn’t come from the state, it’s going to have to come from the students.”
Mankiewicz has proposed that the only solution consists of funding the very same institution currently being defunded.
“The only way out of this situation statewide is to increase the funding on the state or national level for secondary and higher education,” he said. “It ends up breaking down to what the citizens of Wisconsin want. I think the general masses of politicians don’t necessarily see the importance of four-year universities, and that is why we are seeing the cuts. To remedy that situation, vote in politicians and representatives that see the benefit of college and four-year universities.”
Siemers thinks that further collaboration is necessary between staff and the UWO Chancellor.
“If shared governance is real, then the Chancellor will have to listen to those expectations for collaboration,” he said. “We’d like to have constructive engagement with the Chancellor in the future.”
by Phoebe Fletcher & Kassandra Bowlus-Jasinski
Published October 2 2023
Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue I