Budget action needed to help UW compete for faculty

The lack of a new state budget is hindering the recruitment and retention of faculty, say the university system’s top two officials.

“The longer Wisconsin goes without a state budget or pay plan, the tougher this challenge becomes as we compete with other states for this scare talent,” UW System President Katharine Lyall told the Board of Regents Friday, Sept. 10.

Lyall says the challenge is exacerbated by the fact that 25 percent of faculty at UW schools will retire in the next five years. Replacing them with the best possible professors is the key to maintaining and enhancing the quality of the UW System, Lyall says.

Regent President San W. Orr Jr. of Wausau says the state needs to pass the 1999-2001 budget soon to protect and preserve the UW System.

“To go out in the marketplace to recruit when professors won’t even know how much they will be earning is more challenging than it ought to be,” Orr told his colleagues on the board.