Dear Faculty and Staff,
This is a particularly difficult message to share today as we continue to see the catastrophic economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. UW-Milwaukee and every UW System institution face new and serious financial challenges. And, every day we are confronted with painstaking decisions that none of us wants to make but that are necessary to keep our campuses operating and to carry out our dual mission. These decisions hurt and we know they will have considerable impact on the people we care deeply about and on whom we rely to serve our students – our faculty and staff.
While UWM will benefit from $17 million in federal support through the CARES Act stimulus funding, half that amount ($8.5 million) is directed toward financial relief for students. We fully support that relief for our Panthers. The remaining funding will help UWM with its FY 2020 operating deficit created by COVID-19. Having said that, the operating and enrollment-related losses continuing into this summer and next fall, under the best-case scenario, are expected to be far greater. Most institutions of higher education are predicting, at a minimum, very significant losses in onsite operating revenues and enrollments, even if institutions are able to offer onsite instruction in the fall, a decision to be made later.
We shared the likely need for furloughs in my message to you last week and in comments from our leaders during the April 17 town hall meeting. We talked about how furloughs can help us to address the dramatic financial toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Provost Britz and I have been in consultation with our governance leaders, deans, division heads, and others about the need for both across-the-board and position-specific furloughs on our three campuses.
A furlough is an unpaid, required leave of absence, either intermittently or for a specified consecutive number of days, during which the employee remains an employee of the institution. A furlough is not a layoff. We are using furloughs instead of layoffs because it is our goal to bring employees back to their positions when normal campus operations resume, and our revenue sources are stabilized. Furloughs also help us to preserve employees’ positions and benefits.
Position-Specific Furloughs
We are at a point now that we must move ahead with position-specific furloughs (PSFs). UWM’s implementation of PSFs is based on UW System’s Interim Policy on Furloughs. In the UWS policy, PSFs are referred to as “Consecutive Day Furlough Assignment.” UW System has published FAQs on its policy. PSF does not apply to UWM faculty. We will implement PSF initially over two phases.
The first group of employees will be placed on position-specific furloughs beginning May 2 through Aug. 31, 2020. Deans, division heads, and directors were asked to identify employees whose work cannot be performed remotely and who are not designated as essential to current onsite operations, as well as employees in units most impacted by our immediate financial losses. Employees who fall in this group will be notified by April 24.
The second group of employees to be placed on PSF include individuals who are performing duties and responsibilities remotely that are not mission critical at the present time. This will help achieve budgetary savings and mitigate overall anticipated losses to UWM. This group of employees will be placed on position-specific furloughs beginning May 16 through Aug. 31, 2020. Employees who fall in this group will be notified by May 9. Due to campus needs, some employees may be identified later than May 16 and would be furloughed for a different period of time.