Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Plan would hike tuition by 5.5 percent at 4-year UW schools
MADISON — Most University of Wisconsin System students would see their tuition go up 5.5 percent under a plan released Tuesday, in part to pay for an unfunded mandate giving free tuition to veterans.
In all, the plan would increase resident undergraduate tuition by $348 at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, $340 at UW-Milwaukee and $265 at 11 other four-year schools for the coming academic year. Undergraduate students from other states would see the same dollar increases.
Students at the 13 two-year UW colleges would have their tuition frozen for the second straight year to keep the colleges affordable for low-income and nontraditional students. Tuition for graduate students from other states also would be frozen as part of a plan to bring their above-average tuition in line with peer schools.
The UW System Board of Regents is expected to vote on the plan during a meeting at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday. The dollar increases would be the second lowest in six years, with only last year’s 5.5 percent increase being smaller.
“Predictable, modest increases in tuition are appropriate,” said Regents President Mark Bradley, who noted additional state and private financial aid would help offset the blow for low-income students.
UW System officials said most of the increases would be used to pay for a state program giving free tuition to veterans and some of their family members. Lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle created the program in 2006 but have not fully funded the benefits, which have been extremely popular.
More than 3,100 veterans and family members had received free tuition at UW System schools as of last fall. The system expects to spend $40 million on the benefits in the current two-year budget but receive only about $9.5 million from the state, UW System spokesman David Giroux said.
“This vets tuition program is severely underfunded,” he said. “We support veterans, we think they deserve a college education, and we think it should be paid for.”
The tuition hike would provide an additional $18 million for the benefits next year and keep campuses from eating the costs in their own budgets as they have been doing, system documents show.
Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, chairman of the Assembly committee that oversees the system, called the proposal “a money grab.” System officials assured lawmakers last year they could cover the cost of the benefits internally, he said.
“They are using veterans as a shield and that is simply wrong,” Nass said.
Giroux said system officials hope students have to subsidize veterans benefits only for one year. They want state lawmakers to fully fund the program or Congress to expand federal education benefits for veterans, he said.
Student leaders said they supported the program but didn’t think its costs should fall on them. They also said they would have preferred to see a tuition increase closer to the rate of inflation.
“We hope that in the future, UW System and the state are able to work together to make tuition more affordable for everyone and not just veterans,” said Patrick O’Connell, a spokesman for United Council of UW Students, a lobbying group.
Some Republican lawmakers have argued that campuses should be able to absorb the costs of providing free tuition for veterans, just as they do with student athletes, top scholars and others. But those scholarships are built into the budget while the veterans benefits are not, Giroux said.
Meanwhile, the tuition freeze would benefit about 12,500 students in two-year colleges and another 8,000 in graduate schools across the state.
Nonresident graduate school tuition is as much as $4,000 more than at peer institutions and freezing it would make it easier to attract top students with free tuition, system officials said. The freeze would not apply to professional schools at UW-Madison, including law, medicine, veterinary and pharmacy.
Undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees at the flagship UW-Madison would be $7,184, still the second lowest in the Big Ten conference.
Hannah Karns, a UW-Madison student leader from Minneapolis, said the tuition increase would do little to retain top professors and address other campus needs, while making the school less affordable.
“It used to be a lower-income level that had a hard time. Now it’s becoming the middle class,” she said. “Even more students are finding it harder to attend.”
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