UWM Centers on the Line as Letters and Science Addresses Budget Cuts

Centers funded by the College of Letters and Science may face budget cuts and possible closure. Thursday’s L and S budget cutting meeting took on multiple topics from questions for the Chancellor to the value of each faculty member employed by the school.

L and S sponsors many groups of faculty and staff who come together on research. These groups are considered “Centers.” Funding for Centers is called “101 Funding,” or funding from the state that is divided among departments. Some L and S Centers include the Center for Celtic Studies, the Center for Economic Development and the Center for 21st Century Studies. With limited 101 Funding, the L and S faculty at the budget meeting talked about the need to consider cutting costs and, if necessary, cutting some Centers all together.

Previous L and S budget meetings held discussions centered on laying off ad hocs and other lecturers. For now, L and S is not actually terminating jobs. Instead, L and S Dean Rodney Swain said the positions of faculty who are resigning and retiring are not being refilled. In regards to finances, Swain considered all departments to be in the red at this point.

Swain is pushing for more money. The school currently needs to cut $26 million out of the budget. This is spread across 25 departments and 54 degrees.

The meeting began with jokes and laughter among colleagues, but the matters discussed were far from light. A pile of handouts titled “Questions for the Chancellor and Provost” made their way around the room. As each faculty member reviewed the numbers and bullet points on the papers, questions were brought up about which topics would be most important to address during a special question-and- answer meeting between the chancellor and faculty. This meeting is set to take place April 28.

With limited time during the upcoming meeting with the chancellor, L and S faculty at Thursday’s meeting attempted to narrow down the most crucial issue the school is facing today. Because of the significant budget cuts, the need for funding is great, they said.

“We’re making the case that the strategic investment on this campus is to invest in L and S,” Swain said.

Swain added that he desires to make a persuasive case to the chancellor in order to encourage him to “immediately start searching in that vault for money.”

Meeting attendees said they recognized the importance of the role of each faculty member in the school. Faculty are the ones providing the services to their customers – the customers being the students. L and S face the problem of whom to cut when so many providing services are believed to do his or her job well.

Mike Darnell, the assistant dean for curriculum, governance and assessment in the College of Letters and Science, discussed funding throughout the College. L and S has already made substantial cuts, but still not enough, he said.

Last week, Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies presented reasons why funding for the program should remain. Dave Clark, associate dean of L and S, said the Centers need to understand that it’s not a matter of whom to cut funding to; it’s a matter of what to cut within every program.

“ I would like them to come in with the assumption that this is being cut…” said Clark. “It sucks, but what else are we gonna do.”

Swain agreed with Clark that cuts will be made regardless. After evaluating last weeks meeting with the Center for Jewish Studies, Swain decided upon what needed to be changed.

“What they were asked to do was to talk about proposed cuts and what those impacts would be, but that’s not what they presented,” said Swain. “What they presented was ‘any cuts to our program will have this impact’ and that’s not the conversation we’re having.”

There are select programs that are safe from cuts altogether, such as the Writing Center and the Language Resource Center. Darnell explained how these Centers are exceptions because they provide a direct service to students.

After about 40 minutes of discussion, faculty attending the meeting decided a “preamble” needs to be written up by April 28. This preamble will include the most necessary things to address with the Chancellor during his meeting.

L and S hopes to question the Chancellor on his recent investments. They claim some of the investments are not moving the school forward.

A final L and S budget meeting will be held before Chancellor Mone’s question-and-answer session. The final decision about what issues to bring to the Chancellor’s attention will be made during the final meeting.