The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is not a particularly wealthy school.
So when the writing on the wall made it clear that the regional campus, which educates 10,700 students, would have about a quarter of its state funds cut this year, Eau Claire administrators had already planned a course of action to trim the fat: significant administrative reductions, preferably as far away from the academic enterprise as possible.
Yet dealing with a 13.5 percent reduction in operating funds requires massive change, and it turns out that it’s very difficult to keep the impact of such a loss entirely off the radar of students.
The funding cuts were part of a controversial and sweeping two-year, $250 million pruning of Wisconsin’s university system by Governor Scott Walker and fellow state Republicans, and were passed alongside the continuation of an existing tuition freeze.
Academics nationwide have been largely condemning the removal of tenure from state statute, also approved this budget cycle (tenure remains in effect through the University of Wisconsin System rules), and debating assertions by Walker that colleges should focus more on job training and less on humanities.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/29/university-wisconsin-eau-claire-responds-massive-cuts-state-support