A look at the UW-Madison’s financial prospects
Opportunities and challenges
Opportunities and challenges
Darrell Bazzell is vice chancellor for
administration at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison
administration at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
Darrell Bazzell, the UW vice chancellor for administration, has had extra homework this semester. In
addition to his usual work of pouring over every line of Governor James Doyle’s proposed 2009-2011 budget to
assess the potential impact on the University of Wisconsin, Bazzell has also had to pay attention to the federal
stimulus plan to assess the opportunities for the university as well.
While Wisconsin’s $5.5 billion deficit is having a direct, negative impact on the University of Wisconsin’s
budget, the impact is uneven and partially offset by the federal government’s stimulus package. So while it is
very likely that there will be a tuition hike for most students in the 2009-2011 state budget, it will be offset
somewhat by the stimulus.
“A second area where we will benefit — our students in particular — are the federal tax credits for higher
education and increases in actual program awards that will be made available,” said Bazzell during an interview
with The Capital City Hues. “So our students will benefit from those increases. I should also mention that as a
part of the governor’s budget, he did something that is new, which will be very well received. He had proposed
that students who come from a family with a household income $60,000 or less with a demonstrated financial
need will be held harmless from the tuition increase that will have to be put in place to implement the new budget.”
The federal stimulus package contained hefty increases in research dollars for areas like health and energy. While most of these funds will be distributed
through competitive processes, as a premier research university, the UW expects to benefit from the increases. “Our research enterprise is going to benefit through
the stimulus package,” Bazzell said. “We’re talking about increases in the 30-40 percent range. It’s pretty dramatic. They are agencies where we tend to compete
very well for dollars. We’re not sure what the rules of the game will be, but we are anticipating a competitive process. We like competitive processes as opposed
to earmarks because we compete very well for available research dollars. We’re starting to gear up in anticipation of those dollars being made available. That’s
very, very nice.”
For example, the UW recently received a five-year $125 million grant from the Dept. of Energy to study biofuels. “The federal government gave out three
grants across the country,” Bazzell said. “We’re the only institution of higher education that received a grant. That’s pretty unusual for higher education to be
competitive in this regard and really trying to position ourselves to renew the grant in future years and to build on the core grant to leverage that money to look at
bio-fuel alternatives even beyond those that are the focus of the grant. What we are looking at are switch grass and other types of biodegradable materials that
can be converted into fuel sources. The federal government was very focused on what they wanted us to research. So with the infrastructure that we are creating,
we can leverage that by adding some additional researchers on the state side [Governor Doyle added $4 million per year for additional research] to explore other
kinds of alternatives like biomass that make sense for Wisconsin industry. It’s something that the governor and the president are very interested in.”
A final area where the university is receiving a financial boost is in the area of infrastructure development. When the construction of the Institute for Discovery is
completed, the governor’s budget includes $11 million of operating funds for the center. Normally, while the state may grant funds to build new buildings, it
doesn’t provide additional operational funds. So the university must then spread its existing operational dollars ever thinner in order to keep the buildings
functioning and maintained. The additional funding will therefore relieve any financial pressure that the Institute for Discovery may have placed on the university’
s operating budget.”
And if stimulus funds are made available for “shovel-ready” projects on the university level, the university is ready to go. Since 1995, the UW has undertaken
$1.7 billion in new construction using funds from the state and private contributors that were restricted to use on building projects.
“Where we sit at the present time, we have about $250 million in projects that are in the planning and design stage,” Bazzell said. “Now whether or not that will
be made available and we can then compete for them, that’s what we are exploring right now. But we have a number of projects that would in fact, we believe,
qualify. We have to see if the things we think are shovel-ready match with the priorities of the governor.”
By the end of the summer, the UW should know exactly how the governor’s budget and the federal stimulus will affect the UW budget.
The federal stimulus package contained hefty increases in research dollars for areas like health and energy. While most of these funds will be distributed
through competitive processes, as a premier research university, the UW expects to benefit from the increases. “Our research enterprise is going to benefit through
the stimulus package,” Bazzell said. “We’re talking about increases in the 30-40 percent range. It’s pretty dramatic. They are agencies where we tend to compete
very well for dollars. We’re not sure what the rules of the game will be, but we are anticipating a competitive process. We like competitive processes as opposed
to earmarks because we compete very well for available research dollars. We’re starting to gear up in anticipation of those dollars being made available. That’s
very, very nice.”
For example, the UW recently received a five-year $125 million grant from the Dept. of Energy to study biofuels. “The federal government gave out three
grants across the country,” Bazzell said. “We’re the only institution of higher education that received a grant. That’s pretty unusual for higher education to be
competitive in this regard and really trying to position ourselves to renew the grant in future years and to build on the core grant to leverage that money to look at
bio-fuel alternatives even beyond those that are the focus of the grant. What we are looking at are switch grass and other types of biodegradable materials that
can be converted into fuel sources. The federal government was very focused on what they wanted us to research. So with the infrastructure that we are creating,
we can leverage that by adding some additional researchers on the state side [Governor Doyle added $4 million per year for additional research] to explore other
kinds of alternatives like biomass that make sense for Wisconsin industry. It’s something that the governor and the president are very interested in.”
A final area where the university is receiving a financial boost is in the area of infrastructure development. When the construction of the Institute for Discovery is
completed, the governor’s budget includes $11 million of operating funds for the center. Normally, while the state may grant funds to build new buildings, it
doesn’t provide additional operational funds. So the university must then spread its existing operational dollars ever thinner in order to keep the buildings
functioning and maintained. The additional funding will therefore relieve any financial pressure that the Institute for Discovery may have placed on the university’
s operating budget.”
And if stimulus funds are made available for “shovel-ready” projects on the university level, the university is ready to go. Since 1995, the UW has undertaken
$1.7 billion in new construction using funds from the state and private contributors that were restricted to use on building projects.
“Where we sit at the present time, we have about $250 million in projects that are in the planning and design stage,” Bazzell said. “Now whether or not that will
be made available and we can then compete for them, that’s what we are exploring right now. But we have a number of projects that would in fact, we believe,
qualify. We have to see if the things we think are shovel-ready match with the priorities of the governor.”
By the end of the summer, the UW should know exactly how the governor’s budget and the federal stimulus will affect the UW budget.