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At the end of that meeting, Rep. Gene Pelowski, the committee’s chairman, asked Kaler to return Wednesday with details about how the university would handle no increase in funding.

The new report also shows the share of supervisors in each of the four offices. Overall, supervisors make up 16.3 percent of employees.

Finance has the biggest share of managers, the report shows. There, supervisors make up 27 percent of employees and about 38 percent of payroll. Average salary for a supervisor in that office: $103,000.

The consultants will report on the rest of the university’s administration by this summer. The university has also hired Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group to compare the U’s costs with those of other organizations. The university is spending more than $535,000 on outside help for the two studies.

In a blog post Tuesday, former Gov. Arne Carlson added his voice to the conversation about the U’s costs. He criticized its “confusing array of management layers” and questioned the salaries of top U officials, saying they pale in comparison with those of public employees.

When Carlson became governor in 1991, the U president made about $40,000 more than he did, he said. Kaler makes about $490,000 more than the governor. “This mirrors the overall explosion of administrative salaries,” Carlson wrote.

“Sadly, the leadership of Morrill Hall has left us with serious problems that must be dealt with if the University is to succeed,” he concluded.

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168