Cooperative Extension finalizes FY20 funding for CALS
Following discussions between leaders in CALS and Cooperative Extension, Cooperative Extension announced a $420,000 base budget reduction to CALS, representing a decreases of 5.8% to Cooperative Extension’s current funding to CALS of $7.2M. This represents the remainder of 2016 UW System cuts that have been carried for the past few years by spending down reserve funds.
CALS will begin to absorb this budget cut with the FY20 budget year (July 2019-June 2020). Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach Doug Reinemann recently announced a new policy related to filling Extension-funded positions.
The Extension-funded portion (funds 104 and 143) of salary savings from the attrition of faculty and academic staff extension specialists will be returned to the CALS/Cooperative Extension central funding pool. The salary savings will not be automatically returned to departments, centers, or other units. Units will be able to submit a request to the college to fund any faculty or academic staff specialist position with Extension resources. Units may also submit requests for temporary bridge funding, to cover critical needs.
Calls for requests for Extension resources will be sent out twice a year, in both fall and spring.
Because of the reductions, requests for Extension funded positions remain on hold at this time. Reinemann says, “The nEXT Generation reorganization and UW-Madison Campus integration has resulted in some changes in the organizational structures of Cooperative Extension. The CALS redesign will likely result in some changes in the organizational structure of CALS. It is anticipated that the collaborative CALS/Cooperative Extension process of needs assessment and resource allocation will continue regardless of how new structures emerge.”