Frustration From UW Staff Regarding New Class Time Requirements

Saturday, October 3rd, 2026 -- 8:00 AM

(Nadia Scharf, USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin) One month into the new school year, a new Universities of Wisconsin requirement that faculty members spend a certain number of hours in front of a class has meant frustration for many not because of what they're now required to do, but because of what they say it doesn't account for.

According to Nadia Scharf with USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin, in 2025, state legislators approved a last-minute state budget that increased funding for the Universities of Wisconsin, also known as the UW system, by $256 million, the largest increase in 20 years.

But those funds came with strings: among them, UW faculty would be mandated to meet credit hour teaching requirements. These workload requirements went into effect at the start of this school year.

Under the new mandate, all full-time faculty and academic staff must teach at least 24 credits per academic year, with a carveout for UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, where professors are expected to produce more research. There, the minimum workload is 12 credits per year.

A typical college class is three credits. On average, faculty across the Universities of Wisconsin taught at their campus's mandated level in the 2025-26 school year. UW-Madison professors teach just under 12 credits per academic year, but UW-Milwaukee faculty taught over 17 credits per academic year.

Other UW campuses, which are reported as a group, taught about 26 credits per academic year. The new rule caused frustration among some professors, who criticized the requirement as trying to micromanage professors' work without understanding what they do.

Some worried that the new workload policy, along with another budget provision requiring UWs to standardize general education requirements, would hurt universities' ability to be flexible to meet students' educational needs.

"What lay behind this is something that actually faculty and students and staff and legislators all agree with,” said Nancy Kendall, a professor and the chair of PROFS, a UW-Madison group that advocates on behalf of faculty. “The issue comes with people being able to listen and trust each other. People are sincerely rowing towards the same goal, but they might not fully understand the ocean in which we're rowing right now."

Some professors say their course load hasn’t changed, while others say their day-to-day, or the day-to-day of their peers, has been significantly affected in a way they say could negatively affect students’ experience.

“It means less time for faculty to meet with students outside of class, it means less time for faculty to involve students in our research,” said Jon Shelton, president of the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin. “It was a solution in search of a problem.”

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