UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Announces Departments Qualifying for Buyouts

Posted on by

UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone announced, in an email to faculty and staff, the departments that have been selected to participate in the Voluntary Separation Incentive Package (VSIP), a retirement incentive package aimed at aiding the university in dealing with the proposed $300 million cut.

The departments within UWM schools and colleges listed for participation in the program are: Finance and Administrative Affairs, Academic Affairs, College of Health Sciences, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Lubar School of Business Administration, School of Education, Peck School of the Arts, Graduate School Research & B35-Graduate School Education, University Information Technology Services, College of Letters & Science, UWM Libraries, School of Information Studies, College of Nursing, Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, and School of Continuing Education.

Various non-academic departments also qualify. You can see the entire list here.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Freshwater Science will not qualify. Technology administration, registrar, and student health departments also aren’t participating.

All eligible employees will be notified by May 1.

It has been noted by UWM administrators in previous budget meetings that class sizes may increase due to faculty vacancies.

The departments that have been named as eligible for VSIP were not picked because of their “relative merit,” but rather the Budget Task Force carefully picked candidates in accordance with a series of considerations, said Mone.

These guidelines included whether or not the departments involvement on the program would result in a budget reduction as needed. They also weighed whether the vacancies would need to be filled, and what the financial implications would be. They also examined whether the department can handle the loss of employees.

“This was not an easy decision to make,” said Chancellor Mone, “Our faculty and staff are our greatest assets and it will be difficult to lose valued colleagues.”

The personnel-specific eligibility for VSIP requires possible candidate to be 65 years and older with 5 years of service, or 57 years and older with 30 years of service.