UWM continues to collaborate and work with the community to provide the safest and most effective university environment for students and faculty, but the future of UWM remains cloudy, according to UWM Chancellor Mark Mone.
While UWM has been looking at how to best serve the interests of its students and furthering education by eliminating or reducing programs lacking student interest or faculty resources long before the coronavirus pandemic happened, UWM does not have to adhere to the plan laid out for UW System comprehensive campuses by UW System President Ray Cross earlier in May. The plan must be approved by the UW System Board of Regents before it goes into effect, but Mone expects the board will approve it.
UWM has not laid off any employees so far, but Cross expects layoffs and program cuts to come in the near future across all UW System schools, he said in a press conference.
“What we have done right now is furloughed people,” said Mone.
Furloughs are a continuation of employment, meaning the university must fulfill its role in providing compensation for work and employees must fulfill the duties and jobs outlined in their employment contracts. Furloughed employees take a leave of absence from their jobs with and understanding that they will return to work when it is possible. Furloughed employees still qualify for benefits like healthcare.
The two types of furloughs at UWM right now are Position Specific and Intermittent Furloughs. Position Specific Furloughs are happening right now while the Intermittent Furloughs will affect employees across the board will take effect in the near future.
Position Specific Furloughs affect over 200 positions at UWM who could not do their jobs remotely or were not deemed essential.
“We didn’t have any way to support them,” said Mone about the Position Specific Furloughs.
Intermittent Furloughs will affect employees across the board, according to Mone, but several kinds of employees are exempt from the furloughs.
UWM employees earning less than $15 an hour, employees who qualify for federal grant support and graduate student employees like TAs are all exempt from the furloughs.
More specific details about the furloughs can be found here.
UWM has faced a bounty of issues related to the coronavirus pandemic involving the more than 26,000 enrolled students.
An academic institution like UW-Milwaukee is meant to further education to help grow the community and learn more.
While UWM continues to face many challenges as a result of the coronavirus, the university has learned some lessons from the most recent pandemic.
“We’ve really been able to demonstrate agility on our students part, our faculty and staff’s part and we’ve done some pretty amazing things,” said UWM Chancellor Mark Mone.
One of the most obvious challenges facing UWM is continuing to provide the same level of education to students through the pandemic as they received before the Milwaukee campus became almost completely void of all students and staff.
UWM and its students have done an amazing job overcoming the idea that higher education cannot move quickly and transitioning from in person classes to online, according to Mone.
“We are not approaching this [situation] alone,” said Mone.
The university has also learned how important involving all parties affected by the issues in any decisions it makes because those decisions are tied to so many different facets of our lives. Every problem is as unique as the people who face them, and the effects are likewise infinite.
“Our home lives very much become interspersed with the world of work,” said Mone. “You see so many of these virtual meetings where people’s cats, kids and family members are there.”
There are many facets of life outside the control of the university, but it is still important to consider as many effects of the decisions the university makes as possible.
Another important lesson for UWM is that there most likely will not be a future without the coronavirus playing a role in some way.
“I’m very convinced we are going to be with COVID-19 for a long time,” said Mone. “We’ve got to drive through this and adapt as we’ve adapted before; as UWM has weathered some pretty significant challenges and created opportunities. I think that [the ability to adapt and overcome] is very powerful.”
UWM is working with health experts to protect the best interests of its students, safety, guidelines of public health and the larger academic enterprise with its decisions in the future.
There is no pandemic playbook for universities to follow to help them make the best decisions and know exactly what lays ahead, according to Mone who has more than 30 years of experience in higher education.
While Mone is proud of the success the universities online classes are having right now, he recognizes the needs and wants of many students to return to in person classes on campus.
Outlining a real plan for students to follow for the Fall and future semesters is difficult to do since the future is so uncertain. UWM still plans on opening up classrooms for in person classes in Fall, but online options will still be offered to students who need or want them.
UWM is looking at creating two parallel classroom environments for students in the future where they can choose either online or in person classes. This plan affords the university and students more agility to deal with any other issues relating to the coronavirus.
Much of the future for students attending classes at UWM is unclear. How social distancing in classrooms will work, whether or not plexiglass dividers will be used, where testing and tracing sites will be and exactly how specific programs will be affected is unclear.
Chancellor Mone is considering all options and the university is trying create the best post-pandemic environment for students and faculty possible, but in a similar way to most people, the uncertainty of what the near future holds makes it difficult for UWM to know what lies ahead and make decisions.
Mone, who worked as a chef before becoming a key player in the academic community, thinks changes in student life resulting from the novel coronavirus are extremely important to consider, but the university just doesn’t have all the answers yet.
Establishing testing sites, tracing sites, access to PPE and a protocol to deal with similar problems in the future is something the university must do address the needs of students, according to Mone.
“I want us [UWM] to be known as a very safe place to be,” said Mone. “That’s really important. That’s part of adapting to the future. I don’t want us to just follow [other institutions].”
In order to most effectively address issues students are facing, Mone has been meeting with various groups of students.
He has met with student government leaders to discuss current issues facing students, projects involving student government, and connections between student leaders and students.
Mone has also held student town hall meetings where several hundred students attended. This town hall helps Mone and students interact with each other to work through issues facing students.
Over 1,000 students have emailed Mone and his office with questions and concerns about issues over the coronavirus. The university is continuing to gather all of those questions and concerns to respond to them through UWM’s coronavirus website. https://uwm.edu/coronavirus/
The student population largely consists of commuter students or students who live nearby off campus. Mone thinks considering the safety needs of these students, as well as students who live in residence halls on campus, is crucial to moving forward and overcoming the problems faced by the coronavirus.
Mone has also contributed $50,000 of his own money to a campaign to raise $1,000,000 for student emergency grants. But Mone admits this campaign will not be adequate funding for the problem at hand and he hopes this good will spurs more donations to similar campaigns.
UWM Provost Johannes Britz and Chancellor Mone are taking pay cuts to their salaries designed to match the losses faced by other UWM employees. However, the two administrators will continue to work through any furloughs or pay cuts.
Mone recommends that students who are facing issues with receiving emergency grant funds too late to pay for living expenses like rent, internet and phone should contact the university’s Dean of Students.
He suggested the Dean of Students could help give a voice to these students who have been facing financial problems for weeks.
Many of these students lost their jobs at the very beginning of the pandemic when the CARES Act Emergency Grant was not available. They applied for the university’s older student emergency grant which pays for each student’s living expenses by giving payment directly to the party owed payment, as long as the student grant request is approved.
Starting March 26, the university has been giving aid payments directly to students without involving a third party, in accordance with IRS guidance.
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the university directly paid whichever utility or payment the student needed relief aid for. The student didn’t see that money in their hands.
Since many of these student’s requests for aid were approved after the beginning of the month and the students had to pay their rent using funds set aside for other living expenses due later in the month, the students have to ask their landlord to return one month’s rent once the university aid comes through so they can pay for expenses like their phone bills and insurance.
Mone understands the problems faced by these students who aren’t receiving aid fast enough, but the university cannot control the actions of landlords. The university is working hard to get relief aid to students who need it as fast as they can, but many students are still facing financial problems.