A proposed “voluntary separation” program to help UW-Eau Claire trim its budget in the face of a pending state cut has attracted 115 applicants, Chancellor James Schmidt says. Under the plan, employees have agreed to retire from the university early in exchange for a one-time payment of 50 percent of their annual salaries. “My experience with a program similar to this in Minnesota is that a voluntary separation program can generate position savings and mitigate involuntary separation,” Schmidt said in a press release. In other words, the program can reduce the number of layoffs UWEC has to make in the face of a possible budget cut of $7.6 million. (Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed state budget for 2015-17 calls for $300 million in cuts from the UW System.) Schmidt says decisions about which applications to the program will be accepted will be made by April 24. The actual size of the cuts UWEC and other campuses will experience aren’t clear yet. The state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee isn’t expected to consider the UW System budget until updated state revenue projections are available in late April or early May, Schmidt says.