Cloud Hosting

MADISON The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously voted Thursday to approve a $6.564 billionannual operating budget for 2021-22.

Key takeaways of the annual budget presented by Sean Nelson, Vice President of Finance, include:

Regent Bob Atwell said he appreciated the UW Systems ongoing efforts to keep costs down for students, but urged the Board to consider not just the cost to students, but also the cost of a UW education for students as part of a larger discussion of meeting higher education needs in Wisconsin.

In response, President Thompson reiterated his call for a blue-ribbon commission to study the overall state of higher education in Wisconsin, including both the UW System and the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Several Regents and Chancellors spoke in support of a commission, emphasizing the need to proceed without delay and to include input from campuses.

System President Thompson told Regents it is vital that the University support the whole student as things return to pre-pandemic life and that includes supporting students academic, financial, emotional, and overall health. He said the UW System is expanding some of its traditional programs, like the Summer Bridge Program, to address growing needs.

In a promising sign, Thompson told the Board that new fall freshman applications for UW System universities are up by about 30% over each of the last two years. Moreover, applications by Wisconsin residents, first-generation students, and underrepresented minorities are also up.

I am thrilled with these positive application numbers, he said. It shows our strategies are working and we are setting the stage for success.

Over the past 15 months, UW System has worked to simplify the application process, including waiving application fees, creating a new EApp, allowing students to use a single application for multiple universities, and suspending the ACT requirement.

Thompson also updated Regents on recent progress with UW Systems Administrative Transformation Program (ATP), the multi-year program to address Systemwide legacy process inefficiencies, risks, and gaps in functionality, and to build an administrative infrastructure for the future.

Im going to push this very hard in order for this university to be run like a modern institution, Thompson said.

He reported that he and Chancellor Blank recently approved an amended timeline for implementing ATP that would simultaneously benefit all campuses, rather than UW-Madison going first and others following. Thompson also noted that a 10-year contractual agreement between UW System and Workday, Inc., for cloud-based enterprise resource planning software had been approved by Regents in the Business & Finance Committee earlier in the day and that a new Request for Proposal on implementation services was issued last week.

Turning to budget matters, Thompson noted that Governor Evers had signed the state biennial budget just this morning. That budget provides $8.25 million in additional GPR, $628.7 million for building projects, a 2 percent pay plan increase in each year, and returns tuition setting authority to the Board of Regents by not extending the tuition freeze.

I want to thank Governor Evers and the legislature for their leadership, especially for investing in critical improvements in our infrastructure and support for our employees, Thompson said.

Regent President Edmund Manydeeds III, in his first report to the Board as President, shared a few thoughts on his expected priorities.

As the UW System works to provide a pre-pandemic college experience for students this fall, he said its also recognized there likely will be lingering effects of COVID, particularly in the areas of student and employee behavioral health.

We are actively engaged in a behavioral health initiative to improve the wellbeing and academic success of our students across the UW System because we know that healthy students are more likely to stay in school, graduate, and lead productive and fulfilling lives, he said.

Manydeeds is also focused on improving the campus climate for underrepresented students and employees. He noted the first recipients of the new Wisconsin Regents Opportunity Scholarships, which recognize underrepresented and underserved students, were announced this week. Funded by UW System, 267 students will be awarded scholarships in the inaugural round, totaling $995,000.

We have to do more than just talk about equity, diversity, and inclusion. We have to live it, and weave it through everything we do in the System, Manydeeds said. It starts by doing just one thing a day to make that happen.

Manydeeds also told Regents he wants to appoint a special committee to review the Boards bylaws and governance issues. A key item for this committee to address is the UW Systems allocation of state GPR dollars to campuses.

The Board welcomed new colleague, Dr. Jill Underly, who has just begun her term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Underly has a deep background in public education, most recently serving six years as superintendent of the Pecatonica School District in southwestern Wisconsin.

President Thompson introduced Dr. Jim Henderson, recently named interim Chancellor at UW-Whitewater after Chancellor Dwight Watson announced his resignation for medical reasons. Henderson previously served as UW System Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs.

The Business & Finance Committee approved a contract between UW-Madison and the National Football League. Under the agreement, the National Football League will support the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Healths 4-year multi-site, longitudinal, multi-discipline investigation involving the development and validation of new technologies toward muscle injury risk mitigation in collegiate football players, with a total budget of $3,999,974. The goal of the project is to incorporate advanced imaging and biomechanics to build digital models of athletes risk for hamstring strain injury.

In other business, the Business & Finance Committee:

The Education Committee approved amendments to Regent Policy Document (RPD) 4-12, Academic Program Planning, Review, and Approval in the University of Wisconsin System, to incorporate provisions requiring institutions to review credit requirements of degree programs that require more than 130 credit hours to complete and to reduce the number of students who accumulate excess credits. The proposal recognizes and seeks to address the institutional systems and processes that may present a barrier to students completing their degrees in a timely manner without amassing excess credits.

In other business, the Education Committee:

Chief Compliance Officer Katie Ignatowski presented the Fiscal Year 2022 Compliance Plan, which was approved by the Audit Committee. Ignatowski noted that the Office of Compliance and Integrity (OCI) has worked with each UW System institution to identify individuals responsible for key compliance obligations, craft policies to codify standards for compliance, and develop tools and resources necessary to aid compliance efforts.

Ignatowski told Regents the OCI expects to finalize policies in 2022 related to youth protection and records management.

In other business, the Audit Committee:

The Capital Planning & Budget Committee approved UW-Eau Claires request to lease student athletics, events, and recreation space within the Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex. It also approved a new segregated fee that will be applied towards the lease of the facility.

The facility, which results from a unique community partnership between Mayo Clinic Health System Northwest, Blugold Real Estate, and the City of Eau Claire, will provide additional athletics and recreational needs for UW-Eau Claire and a collaborative use of space with Mayo Clinic, who contributes sports medicine, athletics and human performance training expertise, rehabilitation, medical imaging, and research conducted with the UW-Eau Claire Department of Kinesiology and other academic departments.

In other business, the Capital Planning & Budget Committee:

Presenting to the REDI Committee, three WiSys faculty innovators highlighted their efforts to build a culture of research, discovery, and product commercialization at UW System comprehensive universities. Their unique perspectives were followed by updates from several students who have been recognized systemwide for excellence in undergraduate research, product development and start-ups.

UW-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford, WiSys Advisory Board Chair, led a panel discussion with three other chancellors highlighting the growth of intellectual property development, industry partnerships, and entrepreneurial ecosystems at UW System campuses and in their surrounding communities.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will resume its meeting at 8:45 a.m., July 9, 2021, in Madison.

Continued here:

Board approves UW System's 2021-22 Annual Operating Budget (day 1 news summary) - University of Wisconsin System