Liam Beran
UW-Madison Provost Charles Isbell Jr.
UW-Madison Provost Charles Lee Isbell Jr.: 'We are in the beginning of a long slog.'
Students or taxpayers could bear the brunt if President Donald Trump’s attempt to cap research overhead funding is upheld in court, UW-Madison’s provost warned academic staff during a governance meeting Monday afternoon.
“It's either going to be borne by the students who have to come here and pay more tuition and not get fellowships, not get opportunities in research, or it's going to be borne by states and state legislatures,” Provost Charles Lee Isbell Jr. told academic staff, referring to a National Institutes of Health directive capping indirect research costs to 15% of any issued grants. “Our legislatures need to know that if this goes through, that cost is not going to be borne by me.”
The UW Board of Regents sets systemwide tuition rates based on the state budget enacted by the governor and the Legislature. UW-Madison’s annual tuition is $11,606 for in-state students and $42,104 for out-of-state students. Any proposed tuition increase would likely be announced by UW System President Jay Rothman in March, after Gov. Tony Evers’ executive budget is announced this month.
Late Monday a federal judge in Massachusetts placed a pause on the NIH directive in response to a lawsuit submitted by 22 state attorneys general, including Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 21.
Asked if tuition raises are on the table, UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas notes the pause in the NIH directive. Lucas adds that “UW-Madison has no plans for immediate changes or to request a tuition increase at this time.”
UW-Madison’s indirect costs — critical research infrastructure such as building maintenance, equipment and administrative staff — range from 26% to 55%. Were the NIH directive upheld, UW-Madison could take a $65 million cut in funding.
“These so-called ‘indirect costs’ aren’t optional expenses,” UW-Madison administrators, including Isbell and Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, wrote in a Monday statement. “As is the case while running your household, you need both money to buy groceries (direct) and the financial resources to keep a working refrigerator and electricity (indirect) to store your milk and eggs.”
Federal funding comprises 25% of the university’s annual budget; state funding is around 14%. The NIH awarded $478.8 million in research funding to UW-Madison, which has the sixth-highest research expenditure of any university in the United States, in the 2022-23 budget year.
Researchers and university administrators say a loss of funding would be devastating to critical research and Wisconsin’s economy. In a Monday post on X, Rothman said “taking a meat cleaver to this funding is wrong.”
“[I’m just thinking about] what happens if we, all of a sudden, have a $50 million deficit in NIH funding, and we can't create things like warfarin [a blood clot medication] or other things like that,” Zach Smith, a mechanical engineering research administrator, said at Monday’s meeting.
Beyond the NIH cuts, university administrators face an uphill battle in knowing which programs or funds could be at risk under the new administration.
“The concern is not just for the immediate, but for any threats to our long-held values, whether they’re evidence-based research, academic freedom, diversity of various sorts, non-discrimination, and so much more,” Isbell told academic staff. Trump has signed numerous executive orders seeking to dismantle DEI programs across federal institutions and entities that receive federal funding.
Isbell said the university’s status as a “big, broad, highly decentralized place” means that it is a challenge to know “what’s out there,” in terms of university programs potentially at risk under Trump’s executive orders.
The orders, he adds, are nearly indecipherable.
“The truth is, we don't even know what they mean by most of these things. It is ill-defined,” Isbell said. “Whatever it is they mean, I suspect that the judiciary will be weighing in and there will be an ongoing conversation about that.”
Actions for universities to fight back are limited. Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Diana Harvey told academic staff the university is in constant contact with other public and private universities to strategize responses to the federal actions. Harvey said UW-Madison plans to focus on highlighting its research and positive impacts on Wisconsin, rather than “the financial hit that we would potentially take if this directive were to come to pass.”
A 2021 economic impact report found that UW-Madison, affiliated organizations and UW-related startups contribute $30.8 billion per year to Wisconsin’s economy, supporting nearly 232,000 jobs and generating $1 billion in state and local taxes.
Isbell said UW-Madison needs to better communicate its importance to Wisconsin and the nation: “People do not understand, because we do not explain to them very well, why it is we need [indirect funding], what it is that's different about the state, what it is that we actually provide them.”
Though Isbell said presidential transitions almost always result in significant operational changes, “the scope; the speed and the direction of the speed of the directives is fundamentally unprecedented.”
“Everything's changing. Everything's changing quickly,” Isbell said. “I do think that it's only fair to say out loud that we are in the beginning of a long slog.”
