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In her first all-university address Wednesday, Interim Chancellor Elizabeth Hitch outlined nine campus priorities for the 2006-07 academic year, with the first four tied to the proposed growth plan.
She also unveiled a communication network plan that includes faculty, staff, students and community members. Different teams would address the effect on programs, determine an enrollment goal and find ways for campus and community input as initiatives, such as the growth plan, evolve.
The plan calls for increasing resident tuition by about $1,300 over three years while lowering nonresident tuition by about $3,000 from the current $15,000. It also would increase full-time enrollment by 1,000.
Campus administrators were surprised by concerns voiced about the plan since it received initial approval from the UW Board of Regents earlier this month. A key issue is the idea of using tuition income for financial aid. About $15 million will be raised annually once all components are in place, with $3.8 million for financial aid for low-income and minority students. Administrators hope those two populations will make up half of the 1,000 new students.
While lauding the goal of increasing diversity, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green and the editorial pages of two Wisconsin newspapers immediately questioned how it would be accomplished.
Raising tuition would set up “another barrier for Wisconsin students to attend college” in the state, Luke Punzenberger, a spokesman for Green, said Wednesday. The state instead should focus on “raising the bar academically” during the K-12 years, he said, to “make sure these families get to the point where they have the opportunity to attend these colleges.”
Editorials in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Appleton Post-Crescent expressed fear of setting a bad precedent to have students pay for diversity, which both saw as a responsibility of the state.
“They missed the whole point of access and quality enhancement of all students,” Hitch said of the concerns.
At least $11 million would be used to hire 100 more faculty and 33 more staff, who would support all students, Hitch said. More students will produce more baccalaureate degree-holders for Wisconsin, Hitch stressed, and the earliest the tuition increases could take effect would be fall 2008. Students enrolled at UW-L before that time would not have to pay the increased rates, she added.
More state funding would be preferred but is unlikely, Hitch said, noting the campus has received $6.3 million less in state funding than it did five years ago. UW-L’s growth plan does not require additional state taxpayer dollars above what it already receives, plus continuing costs.
While Gov. Jim Doyle realizes state agencies have “had to do a lot more with a lot less,” the state’s fiscal picture is looking brighter, Doyle spokesman Matt Canter said Wednesday. The UW-L proposal comes as Doyle is requesting the Board of Regents keep tuition increases to 3 percent or less for the next two years. Doyle is “committed to ensuring that the university has the funds it needs to see this through,” Canter said.
Green doesn’t expect to reduce UW System funding but thinks the UW System has inefficiencies that first need to be addressed, Punzenberger said.
The plan must be included in the 2007-09 biennial budget request. Neither spokesman was sure if their respective candidates would support it.
Kate Schott can be reached at Kate.Schott@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8226.
