Tuition for UW raised 16.7-18.7%
10:37 PM 7/10/03
Karen Rivedal Higher education reporter

The UW Board of Regents made it official Thursday, voting to raise resident undergraduate tuition by 16.7 percent to 18.7 percent for the next academic year throughout the University of Wisconsin System.

The increase means students at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee will pay $700 more, raising annual tuition from $3,854 to $4,554 at Madison and from $3,738 to $4,438 at Milwaukee. Students at the System's 11 other four-year universities and the 13 two-year colleges will pay $500 more, raising annual resident tuition to about $3,500 and $3,200, respectively.

"We have done the best we can with this budget to preserve academic quality and keep the UW System accessible to Wisconsin students," System President Katharine Lyall said.

The double-digit hike will cushion the blow of an unprecedented $250 million state budget cut over the biennium that began July 1. It will offset the cut by $50 million for next school year, with another $100 million offset expected for the 2004-05 school year, when another tuition increase is planned.

The only bright spot was for students at UW-Madison's Medical and Veterinary Medicine schools. Those students will pay the same rate as they did last year, because resident tuition in those schools already is the country's highest, staff sources said. The tuition increases were approved as part of the System's $3.7 billion budget for 2003-04. Under the plan, state funding for the first time in System history will drop below 30 percent of the System's total budget - to 27.33 percent from 30.9 percent last year.

By comparison, during the System's first full year of operation in 1973-1974, state funding made up almost half of the university's budget. The rest comes from tuition and fees, federal grants and gifts.

For months, most regents and System staff members have argued that steep tuition increases were needed to manage the $250 million cut without deep reductions in programs, personnel and enrollment. Even so, the System still must cut $100 million in those areas over the biennium to help balance the state's $3.2 billion budget deficit.

But three regents on Thursday voted against the spending plan, largely as a symbolic gesture against the tuition increases.

"This is a call for increased state support of the UW System," said Regent Elizabeth Burmaster, in describing her 'no' vote. Burmaster also is the elected leader of the state's K-12 public schools.

"It is only through increased (state) funding, and not these never-ending tuition increases," Burmaster said, "that we will ensure the interests of the System as a public university system."

Burmaster also said $26 million in extra financial aid next school year should have come from state coffers, not from student fees for housing, student life centers and cafeterias, as proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature.

Also voting against the plan were Regents Jesus Salas and Beth Richlen, who is the student regent. By voting no, Richlen was on the same page as United Council of UW Students, the official lobbying group for System students.

United Council President Jeff Pertl faulted the board for raising tuition to the maximum allowed by the state. Pertl noted that students in the fall will see fewer courses, larger classes and fewer teachers and staff, as the System works to make $60 million in required program cuts not covered by the tuition increase.

"The bottom line is that students are paying more for less," Pertl said.

Systemwide, room rates will increase $145 on average and meal plans will go up about $54. The budget also eliminates 629 state-supported jobs, a cut that the System will achieve largely by not filling vacancies.