An announcement at last week’s University Academic Senate meeting announced Marquette’s goal to reduce the universities spending by $31 million by 2031.
This amounts to a 7% reduction by 2031, and by 2.5% by the 2026 fiscal year. The university hopes that revenue increases could reduce that target.
This comes as a result of Marquette’s new plan titled “Marquette 2031: Securing Our Future” led by a steering committee co-chaired by Jill Guttormson, Dean of the College of Nursing, and Ralph Weber, acting general counsel and adjunct professor in the law school.
40% of the budget reduction, by 2031, will be reinvested into the strategic plan priorities. University Provost Kimo Ah Yun said the other 60% of the budget accounts for rising prices and the anticipated enrollment drop across the university.
Ah Yun said the university is operating under a current budget shortfall that is estimated between $9 million and $9.5 million Dec. 12 2023.
The full budget report from the university faculty committee on budget and financial planning was made public at this same Academic Senate meeting March 18.
Ah Yun named three things that need to happen in order to reduce the budget: find external support money, finding was to reduce the operating budget.
The team addressed layoffs happening at St. Norbert College in De Pere Wis. amid budget issues, UW-Milwaukee closing its Waukesha campus, University of San Fransisco proposing a $26.5 million in budget cuts and Xavier addressing a $16 million budget deficit.
“The fact that higher ed is facing some challenges, it’s nothing new to this group. We know that there are a number of our global peers and Jesuit peers that are facing some immediate major challenges. Fortunately, we’re not in that position,” Weber said during the March 18 Academic Senate meeting.
The spending reduction was decided by the Executive Leadership Team, in collaboration with the Board of Trustees and the University Leadership Council. Listening sessions and additional meetings will be held in the coming months around campus.
“One of the things that was really important is that we came to this body [Academic Senate] and began here to be able to say, ‘here’s where we’re going and let’s work together to talk about next steps,’” Ah Yun said.
Members of UAS were not consulted on this decision before the announcement last Monday. Individuals have to be invited to be part of the steering committee.
“We’re asking for your participation and we’re asking for collaboration across campus… we’re the chairs of the committee, but we are going to be collaborating across campus before making any recommendations,” Guttormson said.
When asked about when this decision was made, Ah Yun said university administration has been working on developing this for years. Weber said the steering committee has been working on the project for several weeks prior to the UAS meeting.
“The executive leadership team, with support from the board of trustees and also the leadership council, has indicated and found that we’re going to need to find ways to reduce our operating budget and to begin findings ways to reallocate resources to support our strategic plan,” Ah Yun said.
“It’s very important to understand we’re not in a crisis. We are acting for this vision: What do we need to do now so that we can keep our promises for generations to come?” Weber said.
Marquette University announced on Monday, March 25 that the steering committee has released a Team’s site which includes updates about “Securing Our Future” and gives a platform for the Marquette Community to share their feedback. Anyone with a Marquette email address can join the site.
This story was written by Sophia Tiedge. She can be reached my [email protected].
