UW-Oshkosh academic remodel looks to increase efficiency and save money

OSHKOSH (WLUK) -- In a year full of changes at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, yet another change will be coming soon.

"Takes us from our existing four colleges down to three and it creates six interdisciplinary schools," Provost Ed Martini said.

In February, the university announced it was looking to change academic delivery by condensing colleges and programs. Last week faculty voted between two options, and elected to choose "Model A." Martini said the change is largely focused on career readiness.

"Business, media and communications as one college," Martini said. "Culture, society and education as another and then nursing, STEM and health professions. So we're combining things in an interdisciplinary way that's going to really allow us to highlight the career clusters.

The students we talked with on campus Monday say they aren't very familiar with the remodeling plan and university officials say it won't be affecting them very much. However they will be using it as a tool to attract prospective students in future years.

"It's really designed with them in mind," Martini said. "It's designed for their future so that they can find that career path and as their coming in they can help navigate that."

The remodel also serves as a cost saving measure as UWO looks to eliminate the final $3 million of a budget deficit that sat at $18 million last fall.

"Administrative costs," Martini said. "Because we're eliminating departments and creating schools, we're saving money and summer payments for chairs, we're saving money because we're having fewer chairs in those positions."

Martini estimates $1.75 million saved per year with the plan. The university is looking at options with its physical footprint for the final restructuring phase.

"For the size institutions' that we're gonna be going forward, we need some of the fewer buildings," Martini said. "That'll help us save on staffing costs, heating and cooling on the building and maintenance costs."

The new model will be fully implemented by January 2025.

A recent third party financial audit showed UWO would have faced a budget deficit of over $80 million if no changes were made. With the academic restructure, campus officials project they'll be out of the deficit by the end of the 2025 fiscal year.