UW System regents hoping pay raises for faculty will blunt talent drain

Karen Herzog | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin System leaders will soon know whether state lawmakers will fund pay raises for employees and critical repairs to aging campuses' buildings.

A Board of Regents meeting at UW-Milwaukee this week put the spotlight on the urban campus that aspires to hold onto its newly acquired, elite status among 115 top-tier research institutions in the nation while wrestling with concerns over lagging faculty pay and a chemistry building desperately in need of repairs.

The Legislature's budget-writing committee last month put forward a state budget that includes $36 million in new funding for the UW System — $26.3 million of it tied to an outcomes-based funding model.

But a few key budget issues remain unresolved: whether there will be pay increases for employees and what will be included in the capital budget for renovations, repairs and replacements of campus buildings.

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The regents have asked the state to fully fund a 2% pay increase each of the next two years, as it would for other state employees.

Historically, the UW System pays 30% of the state pay plan. But with resident undergraduate tuition frozen the past four years — and the freeze expected to last another two years — it would cost the UW System $23 million to give 2% employee raises if the state doesn't pick up the whole cost, UW System President Ray Cross said.

Faculty continue to leave UW campuses in large numbers because average pay is far below that at peer institutions, several chancellors told the regents. UW-River Falls Chancellor Dean Van Galen noted that much of the quality of education depends on the ability to retain and recruit top faculty and staff.

He mentioned an outstanding chemistry professor who earned tenure there, and left last fall. Her pay went up a total of $6,550 during her eight years on campus— to $54,515, Van Galen said. "She went across the river," he said, referring to a university in Minnesota.

Last year, the provost, chief information officer, chief human relations officer, executive director of facilities and director of student life all left UW-River Falls, Van Galen said. "Typically, for $15,000 to $20,000 pay increases."

UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt said his campus lost 25 tenured and tenure-track faculty to other universities last year. "We begin to lose the soul of the university."

Schmidt said that members of the local business community have become actively involved in advocating for pay increases to keep top university talent. "I think it's time to make that investment," the chancellor said. "The UW System is a gem. ... It's fragile. We can't take it for granted."

Federal cuts loom

Possible federal funding cuts also pose major concerns on campuses.

President Donald Trump's proposed budget would eliminate subsidized federal loans for needy undergraduates. Those loans don't begin to accrue interest until after students graduate.

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Trump's budget also proposes cuts to federal departments and agencies that support research, including elimination of the Sea Grant program.

Thirty percent of UW-Madison's operating budget comes from federal funding, while tuition contributes 19% and state funding is 15%, Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf told the regents.

UWM receives grants from the Wisconsin Sea Grant program for projects related to Lake Michigan such as detection of E. coli at public beaches.

Trump additionally has proposed a 31% funding cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, which provides grants for examining the effects of contaminants on fish larva, sewage contamination of the Milwaukee estuary, and other projects.