Regents approve ‘Up to the Middle’ budget request

The Board of Regents on Thursday voted unanimously to approve the Universities of Wisconsin’s operating budget request for the 2025-27 biennium. The $855 million request over two years would allow the state’s public universities to shed their ranking of 43^rd of 50 states in public funding and reach the national median.

“It’s time Wisconsin escapes the Bottom 10 in public funding and gets Up to the Middle,” said UWs President Jay Rothman. “This budget request will spur innovation in research and teaching, make a degree more affordable for our students most in need, develop talent by focusing on student success, preserve accessibility, and ensure quality.”

Rothman told Regents that under this proposal, he would not recommend tuition increases over the period covered by the biennial budget.

“One thing seems very clear: An investment in the Universities of Wisconsin is an investment in Wisconsin,” Rothman said. “The Universities of Wisconsin will be serving the state for generations to come, and the investments we make now will carry through far into the future. The investments we fail to make will also have consequences that will be generational.”

Rothman proposed the budget request on Monday.

Among the key features of the proposed budget:

• Emphasizes talent development through student success services.
• Extends the Wisconsin Tuition Promise to students from families earning up to $71,000 in adjusted gross income.
• Proposes 5 percent and 3 percent general wage increases for staff and faculty, and requests the state fully fund the increases while adding a merit and market pool.
• Invests in innovation, including creation of a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub.
• Preserves accessibility while covering inflationary cost increases.