Still a bargain
Even With Proposed Increases, UW Tuition Rates Among the Lowest in the Country

By Erik Christianson

The way Jack Kaiser sees it, University of Wisconsin System tuition is a bargain—too much of a bargain, actually.

Eau Claire attorney Jack Kaiser (center) addresses members of the UW System Board of Regents and other participants during a listening session in Eau Claire on March 11. Other guests at the session included Joan Mueller, administrator of business development, Franciscan Skemp Healthcare (left), and Donald Piepgras, president, St. Croix Valley Natural Gas Co., in River Falls. (UW-Eau Claire)

Kaiser, an Eau Claire attorney, UW System alumnus and parent of two UW students, believes that tuition should be increased to maintain the quality of a UW education.

"When I reviewed my son's tuition bill at UW-Eau Claire, I told my wife, 'This is obscenely low,'" Kaiser said at the Board of Regents listening session March 11 at UW-Eau Claire. "I urge the Board of Regents and the Legislature to allow parents to get a good deal on tuition, rather than an obscenely good deal."

Kaiser's comments are indicative of what members of the Board of Regents heard at five budget listening sessions held this spring: Parents and even some students are willing to pay more in tuition to preserve educational excellence and ensure access for future students.

UW-Marathon County sophomore Clayton Zogata said students are not thrilled with the prospect of a tuition increase, but many realize it is necessary to protect quality during a period of enormous budget cuts for the university.

"If it comes to down to buying a new Honda Accord or a quality education, I know that I want a quality education," he said.

Departing student Regent Tommie Jones Jr. said he does not want reductions in the state's 2003–05 budget to inflict irreparable harm to the UW System. "Students are willing to pay their fair share," he said. "I ask the state—what is your fair share?"

Other students told the regents that proposed tuition increases were too high and might force them to quit school. Some students, including United Council representatives, urged that state lawmakers reduce the proposed cut in state spending for the UW System and lower tuition.

Under Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed 2003–05 budget, UW System tuition would increase $350 a semester at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, and $250 a semester at the UW comprehensive campuses and UW Colleges. Even with the proposed increases, UW System tuition rates would remain among the lowest in the country.

For example, tuition and fees for 2003–04 would total $4,104 at the UW System's comprehensive universities under Doyle's budget, still an estimated $722 below the midpoint of tuition for comparable institutions. At UW-Madison, 2003–04 tuition would be an estimated $827 below the tuition midpoint of public Big Ten universities, ranking it among the lowest-priced of its peers.

Doyle's tuition increase would reduce his proposed $250 million cut to the UW System to $100 million—still the largest reduction ever for the university in a single budget cycle.

"We are concerned about what public higher education in Wisconsin will look like five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now," Regent President Guy Gottschalk said. "It is fair to wonder if state support will erode to the point where there is none left in 30 years."