Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman today will release the final third-party financial review of university administration.
“What we discovered when I started is that our universities, a number of them, 10 to be exact, were spending more money than they were bringing in,” Rothman said on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.
The full report will be made public today, but Rothman outlined ahead of the release a number of steps by the administration, including:
Playing a more active role in supporting universities in enrollment management and forecasting;
Developing an accountability process for low-enrolled and underperforming programs;
Enhancing financial accountability standards focused on eliminating structural deficits and implementing formal mid-year financial reviews of the universities;
Leveraging technology to improve administrative processes.
“We’ve been doing continuous improvement in our financial reporting,” Rothman said. “One of the things we’re going to do, with what I saw in the private sector, is we’ll be about halfway through our academic year when the board meets next week, and we’ll be talking to them about revised forecasts, about where universities now see themselves standing vis-a-vis against their budget. We’ve got some ups, and we’ve got some downs, but it’s really just to provide that additional clarity to the Board of Regents as they oversee the financial accountability of our universities.”
Third-party financial reviews have previously been released for 12 UW campuses, excluding UW-Madison, to better align financial goals in the years ahead as another budget session looms in Madison.
Last week Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the UW’s $855 million budget request was likely a nonstarter.
“Right now, the Universities of Wisconsin are 43rd out of 50 states in the nation in terms of public support for our universities,” Rothman said in response. “The $855 million gets us up to average, gets us up to the median. That, to me, in the context of a long period of time where the universities have not been invested in, is a reasonable ask.”
Rothman said the university is living up to its end of the deal made with Republicans surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion, a key consideration Vos said will play into budget negotiations.
“Some of those commitments were over two-year periods, but we have signed that agreement, and we intend to comply with it, full stop,” Rothman said.
“We look at diversity with a very wide lens,” Rothman added. “Yes, it’s ethnic background. It’s racial background, but it’s also veteran status. It’s political ideology. It’s religion, it’s disabled students. All of our students come to us as individuals, not as groups, and we want to make sure that each one of those students has the opportunity to be successful in our university, and they’re going to need different supports depending on where they come from, what’s their background. So that’s what we want to focus on. That’s where our diversity efforts are focused on dealing with an individual by individual to make sure that student can be successful.”
Tom Larson, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Realtors Association, told “UpFront” he anticipates Wisconsin’s housing market to remain competitive into the new year.
He doesn’t foresee any dramatic impacts immediately targeting homeowners coming from the new Trump administration.
“I think President Trump has focused on regulatory reform,” Larson said. “He is going to try to reduce the impact that the federal government has on the cost of new home construction. I also think you’ll see maybe some incentives for local units, the government, to streamline their regulations. I think that’s going to be their primary focus in the upcoming legislative session.”
The latest data from October showed a slight rebound in home sales in October, up 3.5% from the same time last year.
“We are watching interest rates because I think interest rates are going to really drive inventory,” Larson said. “A lot of people locked in these lower rates, three or four percent. And when rates get down to lower six, and even below six, you’re going to see more people putting their homes on the market, which is good for buyers and sellers.
The median home price in Wisconsin continued to climb to $310,000.
“It’s all driven by supply and demand,” Larson said. “Demand causes prices to go up. So we are producing fewer homes than we did 10 years ago. And because of these interest rates that were higher than a lot of people locked in at, fewer people are putting their homes on the market. So we have less inventory and more demand, which is causing prices to increase.”
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