Chancellor’s Furlough Update

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is working closely with the state of Wisconsin and UW System administration to iron out the details provided by the Office of State Employment Relations (OSER) regarding mandatory employee furloughs. As you know, these furloughs are required to help eliminate Wisconsin’s $6.6 billion budget deficit.

UW System President Kevin Reilly sent a message to the campuses at the beginning of the week, explaining the steps now being taken at the system level to come up with guidelines for our campuses and providing access to OSER’s most recent documents which outline a set of all-agency guidelines for implementation. President Reilly’s letter and the OSER documents are now posted on our budget web site.

We have decided not to send them to you directly, for two reasons. They do not yet contain definitive answers about how the furloughs will be applied at UW–Madison (or other system campuses), and they are very detailed. In addition, some of the details offered by the state’s documents will not work for the university campuses. For example, the state announced four “designated furlough days” in each of the next two years, but because of the unique nature and demands of our academic calendar, some of these days will probably not work for university campuses. System officials are looking at the possibility of closing on at least two of the days designated as furlough days by the state: Nov. 27, 2009, and Nov. 26, 2010 (the Fridays after Thanksgiving).

We are examining other options that could involve unit-by-unit closings and possible campuswide closings on other dates that would not affect instruction or the academic calendar.

Until we have more information about how you will be affected, it seems best simply to post the documents for those of you who would like to read them and then to communicate with you again when we know how the system and our campus, in particular, will approach the implementation of the mandated furloughs. I should be able to get back to you within a week.

We have scheduled meetings with representatives of shared governance groups to provide updates on the issue. We will be asking supervisors to work with human resources representatives to provide updates, as they become available, on specific employee concerns and situations.

We recognize the special and varied nature of the work done on our campus and the many funding sources involved. We have made the state aware of those distinctions and have argued against furloughs for employees on non-state funds. The state feels strongly that, as a matter of fairness, all state employees must take part in these furloughs. It is still possible that exceptions will be made for appointments that require student status, but it is now clear that other employees on non-state funds, including federal funding, will be affected.

I urge you to visit our budget web site to find the latest information on these mandatory furloughs and read the guidance and details currently available, if you so choose. Please check back frequently for updates and expect a direct communication from me within the next week.

Thank you for your questions, your concerns and your patience as we work to find answers to our own questions about how the mandatory furloughs will be implemented on our campus.

Best wishes,

Biddy Martin,
Chancellor