OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is facing an $18 million budget deficit.
“I’ve been here nine years,” Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said. “This is by far the toughest year. We’ve had a lot of tough years to be honest. But this is one that’s going to really test us.”
Leavitt addressed university staff Thursday as they enter the final year before going into the red. The problem is largely attributed to the steady decline in enrollment since 2018. Because of that, the student to faculty ratio is not in line with many of the other UW system schools. That means furloughs and eventually layoffs.
“We need to then reshape the university, reorganize to meet the needs of a smaller student population,” Leavitt said. “We have incredible assets here, incredible potential- what we need to do is figure out how to adjust that to better fit the economics that we have.”
FOX 11 spoke with several faculty members off camera after the convocation. They say they didn’t learn anything new about the university’s budget situation that they didn’t already know before. As far as the university’s restructuring plan, they say they’re not ready to comment until they know more on the situation, which could be as soon as Friday.
“Workforce reductions, we’ll have the information going out,” Leavitt said. “It does not have names or anything. We’re just laying out what the process is going to look like and you’re going to see in the process the very steps that will be happening.”
The challenges are being felt by the student population. Devin Heinz believes a mix of politics in the state legislature and a lack of communication by campus officials have left many in the dark.
“I think the university could be definitely be doing a better job of communicating with staff and students. The particular event that took place where the chancellor discussed his plan, students were not emailed about it.”
University officials are also exploring other ways to become more efficient, like scaling down the physical plan. That could mean taking a closer look at underutilized residence halls.
“As a student employee I can say there are areas of inefficiency certainly on campus- especially given that all of our buildings were built way decades ago,” Heinz said. “Redo our energy system on campus to be renewable which would be more affordable.”
The university has an employment freeze in effect now, which means all recruitments are halted for at least the next 60 days. Vice Chancellor approval is needed to move positions forward.
