UW-Stout chancellor aims to raise enrollment

MENOMONIE — UW-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer told faculty and staff that the university will focus on increasing enrollment in 2018.

“I’m making enrollment one of my top priorities this year,” Meyer said in his speech before the start of spring semester.

Enrollment fell this school year, and Meyer said preliminary numbers for 2018-19 are not showing improvements. Last fall’s enrollment was slightly above 9,400, according to Doug Mell, executive director of university communications. The 2016-17 enrollment was more than 9,600. He said the goal for the university is to get back to 9,600.

Meyer said he doesn’t see the enrollment drop as a crisis, adding the university is examining its practices and looking to programs that could boost enrollment in the coming years.

Meyer had good news about salaries for UW-Stout workers. The state has approved, with the final OK expected soon, 2 percent pay increases July 1 and Jan. 1, 2019. Faculty and staff, who filled most of the Great Hall, responded to the salary news with a round of applause.

Meyer added that he was “committed to doing whatever I can to increase salaries even more in the future. Compensation continues to be a priority for me.”

The last general wage adjustments for state employees occurred in both 2012-13 and 2014-15 with 1 percent increases.

Meyer also highlighted the university’s comprehensive fundraising campaign by the Stout University Foundation that will begin its public phase in the fall. The campaign has raised $21.5 million, which is 60 percent of the university’s $35 million goal. Meyer said this is the first time a fundraising campaign on this scale has been attempted at UW-Stout.

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