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Money in the current state budget to fund UW-La Crosse efforts to hire more faculty and provide more financial aid capped the financial allocation at $225,400, said UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow.
However, a $500 tuition increase to begin next fall, will fund more faculty positions, lowering one of the highest student-to-faculty ratios in the Midwest, said State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee.
The tuition increase, previously approved in a student referendum, and by the Board of Regents, allows the university to return to the Legislature this year to request its budget appropriation be allocated entirely to financial aid, said Gow.
The $664,800 will help offset a tuition increase for thousands of students, Gow said.
Even though the legislation was only recently introduced, both Gow and Vinehout remain optimistic that the Legislature will approve the bill before March 14, the end of the current session. Both the Senate and Assembly versions of the bill were introduced last week. The Senate’s bill receiving a public hearing on Thursday, but a public hearing scheduled today for the Assembly bill was postponed due to a forecasted winter storm and hadn’t been rescheduled by Monday afternoon.
The Senate’s Higher Education Committee approved the Senate bill (SB 516) on a 5-0 vote.
