In a major effort to solve problems of declining state revenue, Provost Phyllis Wise has split up administrators into subcommittees as part of a project called 2 years, 2 decades (2Y2D) and hopes to have an outline by winter quarter.

The project, which was mentioned last year in the president’s blog, will tackle declining legislative funding by rearranging the budget model of the university.

“In the current economic environment, it is natural to fixate on the problems of the next biennium or the next fiscal year,” President Emmert wrote nearly a year ago in a blog on budgeting. “We need to resist the temptation to limit our horizon in this way. As we go forward, we need to be focused not just on the next two years, but the next two decades.”

Wise set up a steering committee for the project this August and e-mailed its members telling them that their mission was “to develop an academic business model that will allow the UW to remain a preeminent public research university, perhaps to become the preeminent public university over the next 20 years, in an era of reduced public funding.”

Though the steering committee met several times over the summer, an exact agenda for 2Y2D has yet to be established.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Doug Wadden, executive vice provost.

Recently, Wise formed six subcommittees to focus on certain areas of the university’s mission such as diversity, technology, discovery, learning, engagement and interdisciplinary to help “drill down” project goals.

Each of the subcommittees is in a different stage of its planning. Sheila Edwards Lange, the vice provost of diversity and vice president of minority affairs, is leading the diversity focus group and has already organized a series of focus groups with faculty, staff and students.

“The issues discussed include visioning for how we will define diversity in the next two decades, how we might be structured and staffed in the future, the kinds of programs and activities we might need in the future, and funding models for paying for all of this staffing, programs and activities,” Lange said. “We have had very engaging conversations thus far.”

Wise said the subcommittees would have about 18 months to work before they will have to present a full report of their findings, but she hopes to have an initial outline of the project to Emmert by winter quarter.

The need for the 2Y2D project makes the assumption that the UW’s current business model is unsustainable.

“When the president says that the business model is broken, [he’s saying], basically, we cannot sustain the operation of the university and take cuts of $90-plus million,” Wadden said. “We need to find other ways at least to stabilize those losses and find ways to supplement the revenue.”

Wadden said the 2Y2D project isn’t simply a result of the recent economic downturn, but is the product of decisions made by the Legislature throughout the last decade.

“The state budget has grown over the last eight or 10 years, and every agency’s budget is larger than it was eight or 10 years ago except one, [and that’s the public four-year institutions],” he said. “The state is disinvesting in higher education at a very rapid rate. If we sit here and do nothing, we see the demise of the institution.”

The most challenging part of the 2Y2D project will be predicting how to handle potential conflicts so far into the future.

“Where do we want to be in the next two decades? That’s a long ways out,” Wadden said, “but it’s a question worth asking.”

Reach reporter Katie McVicker at news@dailyuw.com.