Tuesday night, Governor Scott Walker revealed his biennial budget plan for the 2015-2017 fiscal years. Although the fine details have yet to be fully laid out, a proposed $300 million cut to the UW System has been noted by many students, faculty and administrators.

Despite the $12 million cut from UW-La Crosse’s budget alone, pure autonomy will be granted to the campus and UW System as a whole.

The autonomy, in effect 2017, will allow the university to “gain the ability to manage procurement, human resources and some building projects-important flexibilities we have long sought,” said UW System President Ray Cross.

In addition, UW-L will be able to manage tuition, helping to fund programs and new building projects or renovations including the new student center, fieldhouse and parking lots.

As UW-L transitions into the new biennial budget, tuition for the UW System is currently frozen, disabling UW-L from receiving new revenue.

Heather LaRoi, Strategic Communications Manager for the UW System, foresees “that the magnitude of the governor’s proposed cut for the UW System is going to require very difficult decisions and solutions from each of our chancellors and campus communities.”

Without being able to raise the tuition, the budget proposal could lead to stagnation of employee bonuses and pay until 2017. This, in turn, may allow out of state universities to offer a better pay, causing some professors to vacate the UW System. These pay raises could reach as high as $15,000, a number the UW System could not compete with while having frozen tuition.

Ray Cross, the Board of Regents for the UW System, offered a solution by reviewing vacant positions, and addressed possibility of not rehiring for the job opening.

As more critical review of the budget proposal takes places, Chancellors and campus administration are hard at work to find more progressive solutions.

Chancellor Joe Gow, in his initial email to campus, spoke briefly to the action plan for UW-L.

“As we make budget reductions we’ll do so in a way that ensures we continue offering the classes our students need to complete their programs,” Gow said.

Of course, the possibility of reduction of class sections and increase in class size still exists. But Cross, chancellors and administration continue exploring new possibilities until final decisions are made.