PolitiFact Wisconsin recently examined Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca’s statement that the average UW-Madison faculty member brings in almost $250,000 in grant money each year. Barca made the statement in an interview with WisconsinEye on March 12, saying Governor Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million budget cut to UW System could harm faculty research on campus.
PolitiFact found Barca’s statement to be “mostly true.” UW-Madison’s Data Digest shows that in 2012-13, 59 percent of faculty brought in more than $525 million in external grants, which averages $242,000 per faculty member.