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Facing steep financial challenges, the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh has spent all of the discretionary money in its unrestricted reserves, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The depletion marks a first for the Universities of Wisconsin system, a UW Board of Regents member said at a board meeting last week. UW Oshkosh is facing a $7.6 million deficit, almost double what university officials expected, despite deep job cuts last year.
But UW Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said savings from job cuts will kick in soon.
“In short, the total beyond the remaining $3 to $4 million deficit we projected is largely a matter of timing. It’s due to a surge of savings planned for but yet to be realized after we transition into the next fiscal year July 1,” he wrote in an email to campus.
He added that while the university cut more than 250 positions through layoffs, retirements and the elimination of vacant jobs, those roles “ended only five months ago and some came with additional costs—primarily retirement incentives and sick leave and vacation balance payouts.”
In the meantime, the UW system will tap its own reserves to cover UW Oshkosh’s balance. The university is expected to repay the system, with interest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The newspaper reported six of the 13 UW system members expect deficits for the coming academic year. The others are: UW River Falls ($3.2 million), UW Eau Claire ($1.6 million), UW Superior ($1.5 million), UW Parkside ($1 million), and UW Whitewater ($500,000).
On Friday, Democratic governor Tony Evers announced that he will seek more than $800 million in funding for the Universities of Wisconsin in the next state budget, which he said would be “the largest biennial budget increase in our UW system’s state history,” according to local media.
Both public and private colleges in Wisconsin have been under strain in recent years.
