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UW-Rock braces for budget cuts

JANESVILLE — UW-Rock County students and staff may feel some discomfort under a round of state-mandated cuts announced to staff this week.

But more cuts that are under consideration could mean job losses as early as next fall.

UW-Rock is part of the 13 UW Colleges whose boss is Chancellor David Wilson.

Wilson wrote in a memo to staff that he has accepted recommendations from a budget-cutting task force. The recommendations include cuts in instructional staff and maintenance/custodial staff at the 13 campuses.

Those recommendations still are under review, so it won't be clear for several months whether UW-Rock will see job cuts, UW-Rock Dean Diane Pillard said.

Even though staff cuts are still being studied, employees are wondering how long they'll have their jobs, Pillard said.

"I'm trying to calm some of those fears right now, but there are no guarantees," she said. "I don't know what the final recommendations will be or what the chancellor will accept."

Pillard said staff members have come to her, concerned how they'll be able to serve students if jobs are cut.

"My answer to that is, we will make every effort to make sure the student does not suffer throughout this process," Pillard said.

One change being studied is larger class sizes. Pillard said many of her staff voluntarily increased their class sizes last summer, as it became apparent that classes had filled up and more students were clamoring to get in.

Pillard had hoped those larger classes would be temporary, but Wilson could decide to make them permanent.

Pillard said that could mean an extra two or three students added to a class of 20, which is at least a 10 percent increase.

One way the campus could lose a job is through consolidation of business functions at the UW Colleges' central office, Pillard said. The campuses would lose business-office staff, while the central office gained positions. The net effect would be fewer jobs.

Campus libraries are being eyed for "reorganization." That might mean a central library director for all 13 campuses, and UW-Rock would lose its library director but perhaps get a lower-paid librarian, Pillard said.

Wilson also is considering cuts in instructional and maintenance/custodial staff, but Pillard thinks UW-Rock is not at the top of the list for such cuts.

A study of class sizes and of square footage versus maintenance/custodial staff puts UW-Rock in a good light when compared with other campuses, Pillard said.

"Based on the preliminary information I saw, we are right on target, and that tells me our staff has done a terrific job, just an outstanding job, at planning," Pillard said.

UW-Rock's rising enrollments—driven in part by the worst unemployment rate in the state—also helps protect the local campus, Pillard said.

"We are in an unparalleled period of uncertainty, and it is difficult to predict what the future holds," Wilson wrote in his memo. "If the economic downturn continues, it's possible that the institution will need more reductions in the future."

Cuts in the near term mean UW-Rock will have less money to upgrade laboratories or buy computer equipment. Pillard said UW-Rock's recent building project has provided computer resources that will soften the blow.

Another cut means less money for special projects, such as remedial courses for adults that are being planned for spring 2010. Pillard doesn't yet know if those classes will be offered.

One program that will have to be cut back is called Dream Team. It's a pre-college program for 20 to 25 low-income Beloit Memorial High School students who would be the first in their families to attend college.

Pillard said she'll look for a federal grant to keep Dream Team going.