The UW-Whitewater Academic Staff Assembly (ASA) unanimously voted on Wednesday Nov. 18 to make changes to a budget resolution.

The following academic year and its $17 million budget cuts led the discussion. There were talks about differences between funding per department as well as other ideas to make the numbers work. The Assembly debated removing the shuttle to UW Rock County campus to cut costs as well as moving funds around between departments based on financial needs.

“Something’s gotta be cut somewhere,” ASA Vice Chair Terry Tumbarello said. “It’s just not sustainable for it to come out of a pot that is no longer growing.” 

The ASA also discussed the way school would work moving forward. This discussion mainly focused on what measures instructors would need to take in response to the state of things. This involved topics like whether to meet in-person or be remote, how to make testing more accessible and available to students, amongst other things.

“ Hopefully we’ll be better at it now that we’ve done it once,” ASA Chair Patricia Fragola said, “Or, hopefully COVID will get better and we won’t have to go remote after spring break.”

Recognizing the Chancellor’s recommendations for students to get tested twice during the Thanksgiving break was also touched on; it would be best to get tested before going home and after returning.

The meeting also brought up the issues within WINS. The WINS program does not register classes taken on the Rock County campus as prerequisites for classes taken on the main campus. The ASA discussed possible solutions to this issue.

ASA continues to tackle many issues surrounding the university. Visit https://www.uww.edu/asa for more information about the function of the Academic Staff Assembly.