Facing $4.1 million in budget cuts for the 2005-2007 biennium, administrators at UW-Eau Claire are looking for ways to decrease expenses.

The six-month state budget-passing process concluded in July, leaving the UW System with about $90 million in cuts, after factoring in the Board of Regents-approved 6.9 percent tuition increase, Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said.

Students probably won’t feel the effects of the cuts immediately, he said; however, next semester administrative cuts that will be made may be noticeable.

System President Kevin Reilly shared Soll’s assessment, specifying each campus will try to work around reducing faculty. He said students throughout the system may notice cuts in student services, however, such as advising and financial services, although Soll could not specify such cuts will be made at Eau Claire.

“What we’ve tried to do all along with previous budget cuts is to protect instruction,” Reilly said. “We’re not cutting faculty, we’re not doubling class sizes … we’re committed in this.”

Currently, Soll said, Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor Steve Tallant is working with university deans to determine where cuts should be made. Their decisions should be finalized within the next two to three weeks, Soll said.

Although the financial situation of the UW System is not ideal, Reilly praised the governor for his July budget-related veto choices.

Gov. Jim Doyle submitted his proposed budget to the Legislature in February. After review by the Joint Committee on Finance, the Assembly and Senate passed the legislative version of the biennial budget and sent it back to the governor on July 5. Doyle signed the final version of the budget on July 25.

Exercising the gubernatorial line-item veto, Doyle restored about $50 million to the UW System that had been taken out in the Republican-controlled legislative version of the budget. The vetoes included the reestablishment of $34 million in general purpose funding, which the legislature had removed in its final budget, to the UW System.

In addition, although Doyle’s original budget recommendations provided domestic partner benefits for university employees, the Legislature removed the provision from the final budget.

Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, was one of four republicans to vote against the legislative version of the budget. He said the process of passing a budget is difficult because legislators have only an up-or-down vote.

“You have to weight the good versus the bad, and in this budget, I just felt there was more bad than good,” Kreibich said.

Kreibich also criticized UW System officials for continuing to raise tuition.

“You can’t allow the Legislature or the Board of Regents to have an unlimited funding source,” he said, “and that’s what we’ve seen when it comes to tuition.”

Soll said he expects tuition increases to stay between the Regents-approved 5 to 7 percent next year.

Eau Claire sophomore David Prahl works on campus and said he sees cuts that could be made to minimize raises in tuition.

“I don’t think it’s fair to continually raise student tuition,” he said. “The university could be more efficient with its funds.

“In the end it’s all about students learning, and I think they forget that.”