Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker reportedly wants to "cut" $300 million from the University of Wisconsin budget over the next two years.  I am always skeptical of the use of the term "cut" – from the article and other sources, I cannot genuinely tell if it is a budget-to-budget cut or simply a reduction in the rate of increase.  Also, in no news story is it reported what the actual budget of UW is, so readers will have no idea what kind of impact it will have on the system.  But I did some digging and can tell you that the prior two-year budget for UW was $6 billion, so this $300 million may be a 5% cut...at most. In any event...so what? "In the future, by not having the limitation of things like shared governance, they might be able to make savings just by asking faculty and staff to consider teaching one more class a semester," Walker told reporters at the Madison hotel. Word of Walker's remarks about faculty teaching...(Read Full Post)