UW-Oshkosh Officials Hope More Research Grants Will Make Up For Budget Cuts

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is looking to compensate for state budget cuts by increasing grant money for research.

UW-Oshkosh officials are working on a plan to get more research grants, partly in response to a $7.5 million cut in state funding. UW-Oshkosh’s Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said the cuts led to 73 faculty and staff job cuts, with most of the positions were left unfilled and weren’t layoffs.

Leavitt said he wants to get the campus a higher research classification through the Carnegie Community Engagement Foundation that will make its programs more attractive to a number of non-profits and corporations that fund research. The school already gets roughly $14 million a year in research grants, but Leavitt said the strategic plan is aimed at increasing that.

“So, it’s up to the faculty and staff and our community partners to make these kind of metric decisions,” he said. “But it’s going to be a big number. We certainly want to grow it. We also want to grow philanthropy for instance. We all want to continue to work on our lowering the cost of attendance for our students through scholarships.”

Leavitt said UW-Oshkosh is already the third-highest state university in terms of grants, averaging around $14 million a year.

“We want to have a very clear vision of where we’re going, simply because we want to be a much stronger and more self-reliant institution,” he said.

Leavitt said some of the grant money helps pay faculty and student interns.