Facing possible budget cuts of $2.5 million, the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire is asking the students for advice. The University's chancellor and student senate president sent out an email to all students telling them about the budget problem, and asking for any ideas on how to solve it.

The University says the state's multi-billion dollar revenue shortfall means a lot of cutting, and that's trickling down to the University.

When Matthew Sackmann, an economics and geography sophomore, received the University's email, he went into thinking mode. He says, “I thought I might as well put in some of my input on ways I thought we could save money.”

Some of Sackmann’s ideas included, “The most way I think we could save money is to look at student schedules and see where the majority of them are in classes and we could shut down dorms and lights and stuff for like two hours each day.”

University Relations Director Mike Rindo said many of the student’s proposals included energy savings like Sackmann’s. But, he says deciphering the University's budget can be tricky, “Part of the issue is this is complicated because our budget comes from a number of sources.”

Which means any energy savings the University may get from shutting off the lights wouldn't help in this specific budget reduction. But Rindo says what the University wants is to include a lot of people in the decision making process, “Our goal is to be transparent in the process, in terms of what are the ideas out there.”

Rindo says options that could cut down on the budget cut would include spending less on library books for the year, or buying fewer computers for student labs, and possibly putting the costs back on the students. Rindo says, “Our anticipation is there will be some sort of tuition increase.”

However Rindo says it’s too soon to tell if this will be even be necessary or how much the increase would be.

Rindo says the University's goal is to gain some insight into what student’s priorities are, because ultimately he says there’s going to have to be some tough decisions made.