Posted on 05/07/2020 7:05:31 AM PDT by fluorescence
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross directed campuses Thursday to quickly identify signature programs worthy of preservation and brace for layoffs as the coronavirus pandemic deepens the system's financial losses.
Cross said he wants campuses to evaluate their programs by January with an eye toward cost, whether they are duplicated at another campus and student demand. System officials will decide which courses stay and which will vanish, Cross told reporters during a video conference Wednesday afternoon.
Campuses should be ready to move forward with scaled-down course catalogs by fall 2021, Cross said. The only guarantee he could offer was each campus will continue to offer basics such as English and math that undergraduates need to earn a diploma. But he warned that staff layoffs will be unavoidable.
"We're facing some unprecedented challenges," Cross said. "We're trying to be responsible stewards. If we want the system to survive on the other side of this pandemic ... we've got to act now. We just don't have the time."
Cross also said he wants to consolidate functions such as information technology and human resource operations by January 2022. He wants to bolster online course offerings, too, ordering the system to create four additional courses by the beginning of June.
Cross said the system has been inching along on consolidation efforts in recent years but will have to scramble now as the pandemic freezes up the economy.
The system shut down in-person classes in March, canceled all spring sports and told students to move back home. System officials estimate the moves will result in a nearly $170 million loss for the spring semester alone. Those costs include the refunds for on-campus parking, dining and housing, technology purchases to move classes online, payments to student workers who lost their jobs and athletic ticket sales.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Colleges being hurt financially?!
Who said there is no silver lining?
Doesn’t bode well for math and science, but gender studies should be OK.
Here is the REAL education taking place. Liberal college professors are now learning Economics 101 at a very personal level. Shut down the economy of the United States and you shut down the liberal gravy train funding the Leftist utopia.
University of Wisconsin-Madison/Endowment
3.15 billion USD
Anyone want to bet that the classes and departments dropped will be the one that are useful and that will get a student a PAYING job?
Watch, engineering classes will be gone, real math will be gone but “ethnic math” will stay, hard physics and computer engineer and programming will be replaced by data entry training. After all we can always hire foreigners to do the real hard technical work. No wait, I forgot that we train them all here too!
Here is the REAL education taking place. Liberal college professors are now learning Economics 101 at a very personal level. Shut down the economy of the United States and you shut down the liberal gravy train funding the Leftist utopia.
The government does not create wealth. Individual and business efforts create wealth.
There was a story that, years ago, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist was hired by Notre Dame to teach graduate and post-graduate level courses. His contract said he would earn $1 per year more than the football coach.
Academia needs to do this worldwide. We no longer need Womyn studies.
And get rid of 95% of diversity/EEO/grievance pimp administrators.
1st cut - Easy:
Lop off any departments, courses, and positions that have the words “studies”, “diversity” or “multicultural” in their descriptions.
2nd cut:
Reduce staffing at Colleges of Education, if not close them completely. People need to get a real degree first, let them qualify to teach by a year-long apprenticeship at a K-12 school.
3rd Cut
Think return-on-state-taxpayer-investment!
Start with liberal arts, humanities and social sciences; examine the ROI from graduates with these degrees. Does the state need as many that they are currently producing.
Make these numbers: Expected salaries, time from graduation to first job in the field, job taken in-state or out-of-state all publicly available (Put it in the “So You Want To Go To State U” packet to parents of perspective students & perspective students.
4th Cut:
Reduce law school staffing! We currently have a national glut of lawyers.
Ohio University cut several people from the Gender/Black studies dept. and twitter did not take that well.
“The only guarantee he could offer was each campus will continue to offer basics such as English and math that undergraduates need to earn a diploma.”
Shouldn’t they have learned Standard English and basic math in High School?
Rhetorical question....
L
Yep. After all, math and science are too white and racist.
We need to see mass layoffs in colleges, govt employees, etc. When that happens, it’ll be amazing how fast the pandemic ends, LOL
As long as it’s a long-term paid vacation, no problem
The alleged reasoning for all those positions was to balance/exceed the EEOC requirements for “under represented” groups.
He’ll start with non-tenured teachers, employees of the ag extension sites, and a few bureaucrats in obscure support programs.
If he takes on tenured faculty and diversity hires, he’ll be gone by August.
If they cut the inclusion staff you know they are serious.
Hallelujah!! That is the most sensible thing I have a heard university president say in thirty or more years.
He’s probably a flaming liberal speaking like a conservative without knowing.
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