UW-L chancellor doesn’t think budget cuts are that sinister

Democrats criticizing cuts
by UW Board of Regents

University of Wisconsin campuses have figured out details on how they plan to eliminate $250 million in spending, under orders from Madison. 

At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, almost four dozen jobs on campus will be lost, under the plan proposed by chancellor Joe Gow.  

“We were forced to eliminate 46 positions here at the university,” Gow said. “Thankfully very few of those had actual people in them. But those are 46 jobs that won’t be in the La Crosse community and won’t have the economic impact that we’d like to see here.”

He says, however, there will also be reductions in library resources and other materials. 

“That’ll mean we won’t have as many chemicals in the chemistry labs,” Gow said. “We might not have as many cadaverous in the anatomy labs. This could involve fewer supplies for cleaning the campus, maintaining it.”

Gow is appealing to the regents and other state leaders to avoid similar large cuts to the system in the next two-year budget.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is being criticized by Democrats in the legislature for calling off a public discussion of those proposed cuts.  

Public presentations had been scheduled for the regents meeting this week.

“Then it may be that there just isn’t enough time at this regents meeting to present the material,” Gow said. “There’s going to be discussions of some pretty significant topics. In particular, there’s going to a session on diversity issues around the system.”