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The first wave of furlough announcements for Wisconsin’s public universities came Friday with hundreds of employees ordered to take unpaid time off as a way for campuses to address the growing financial fallout associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University of Wisconsin System will furlough its nearly 600 administrative employees one day each month through June 2021 to save about $3 million.

Chancellors of UW campuses, where the bulk of the System’s 39,000 employees work, are making their own decisions on whether to furlough employees. UW-Milwaukee became the first to say it will “most likely” impose a campus-wide furlough for its roughly 3,700 employees. UW-Madison, which is bracing for the largest loss among the campuses with an estimated $100 million shortfall, expects to announce details by the end of the month.

The move marks the first time in at least five years that university employees will be placed on mandatory unpaid leave. Leaders have resorted to other measures — layoffs, buyouts and unfilled vacancies — to address budget shortfalls in recent years.