July Policy Distribution Reminder & Draft Tuition Policies
As a reminder, there were no policies in the standard July 2023 university policy distribution.
There are three (3) policies being distributed for work undertaken on tuition policies at both the Regent Policy Document and System Administrative Policy levels. More details on the tuition policy work can be found on the Proposed RPD and SYS Policy Changes to Tuition Policies page. This work includes the following proposals
One (1) consolidated Regent Policy Document:
One (1) revised System Administrative policy:
One (1) rescinded System Administrative policy:
Please submit your feedback by Tuesday, October 3, 2023. (Reminders will be provided in subsequent policy distributions and distribution reminders until that date.)
Click on the links above to view the drafts and ensure that your feedback is captured for review during the post-comment period. Comments can include attachments, including word documents and PDFs.
Please find summaries of the items below.
CONSOLIDATED REGENT POLICY DOCUMENT
Proposal to Consolidate Regent Policy Documents on Tuition into a New Policy RPD 31-xx, “Tuition Policies”
- The Board of Regents has broad statutory authority to establish tuition and fees. As part of an ongoing effort to update Regent Policy Documents, this proposal rescinds, updates, and consolidates seven Regent policies related to tuition and fees into a single Regent tuition policy. RPD 32-8, “Application Fees and Waivers,” would not be consolidated into this new policy, instead remaining as a standalone policy. This proposal would also reclassify the institution-wide tuition differentials as base tuition, starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.
Read the full proposal here: RPD 32-xx, “Tuition Policies”
DRAFT REVISED POLICY
SYS 805, Tuition and Fees Policies for Credit Instruction
- The purpose of this policy is to outline the statutory, Board of Regents, and administrative policy provisions with respect to the parameters for establishing and authority for approving tuition and fees. Revisions to this policy are being considered in conjunction with the efforts to revise and merge the Regent Policy Documents on tuition and the rescission of the System Administrative Policy (SYS) 815, Student Technology Fee Expenditures. Proposed revisions to this policy include:
- Throughout the policy, renumbered sections to match current SYS template, updated format of statutory citations, and updated refences to RPDs and SYS policies to reflect new titles.
- In Section 4, Background, generalized language regarding the Board of Regents approving a per credit fee structure that does not include a credit plateau, if requested by the UW institution.
- In Section 6.A.I, Resident vs. Nonresident, updated naming conventions and language regarding additional non-resident tuition rates at certain UW System institutions.
- In Section 6.A.V, Special Instructional Fees, removed procedural language regarding Shared Financial System codes that will be made obsolete by the Administrative Transformation Project (ATP).
- Retitled Section 6.A.VI to “Program-Specific Tuition,” removed mentions of institution-wide differentials, clarified that program-specific tuition rates can be sought for high-demand or high-cost programs, removed links to obsolete documents, and added details about the process by which institutions may request program-specific tuition rates. Removing mention of institution-wide differentials eliminates the ability to have such differentials. When all tuition-setting changes are brought to the Board of Regents, the Regents’ resolution for approval will include a provision to move current/existing institution-wide differentials into base tuition.
- Removed former Section 6.A.15, Multiple Campus Enrollments, to reflect the anticipated move of more institutions to a per-credit rate and current practice of not maintaining the plateau between main and branch campuses.
- In Section 6.A.XIII, Application Fees, changed directive from “is permitted to” to “must” assess a uniform application fee to reflect statutory language and the original intent of UW System policy. Added reference to Section 6.B.III, Application Fee Waivers.
- In Section 6.B.II, Nonresident Tuition Remission, Reciprocity, and Interstate Programs, updated naming conventions and language regarding additional non-resident tuition rates at certain UW System institutions.
- In Section 6.C.IV, Refunds/Withdrawals/Drops, added reference to SYS 807, Medical Withdrawal Policy.
PROPOSED POLICY RESCISSION
Proposal to Rescind SYS 815, Student Technology Fee Expenditures
- This policy sets forth principles applicable to the administration of Student Technology Fees. These fees were originally applied to UW-Madison during the 1993-1995 biennium, and then expended to all campuses during the 1995-1997 biennium. These fees are a tuition surcharge and are subject to policies that govern approval and allocation of GPR/fee funds.
- SYS 815 was created in 2001 to specifically define the provisions related to the newly applied Student Technology Fees. In proceeding years, much of this work has been normalized and incorporated into normal operating procedures.
- This policy was originally drafted during an advent of new technology that required consideration for how to build and maintain infrastructure to support their integration into the learning environment.
Given the assimilation of these fees into existing financial processes, it is no longer deemed necessary to maintain a separate policy to specifically govern Student Technology Fees; therefore, this policy is proposed for rescission.
Repealed Interim Policy Waiver
On August 3, 2023, President Rothman repealed the interim policy action waiver SYS 100-08, Interim: Recruitment/Retention of Students Policy Amendment.
- This interim policy temporarily removed language regarding minority groups from SYS 171, Recruitment/Retention of Students pending a full review of the policy in the fall of 2023.
- Upon further review, SYS 171 does not provide additional guidance to universities beyond what is found in other system and university policies. To eliminate unnecessary duplication and redundancy, SYS 171 will be reviewed and likely proposed for rescission in September 2023.
- In advance of the full policy rescission, the interim waiver was repealed.
July Policy Action Summary
Please find below the July Policy Action Summary.
It details policy work completed between July 10, 2023 and August 4, 2023. There was one interim policy wavier repealed. There were also three (3) policies re-numbered and moved into a new Intellectual Property Series. They are listed below:
One (1) repealed interim policy waiver:
Three (3) re-numbered Policies:
- SYS 1305, Computer Software Ownership (formerly SYS 190)*
- SYS 1310, Copyrightable Instructions Materials Ownership, Use, and Control (formerly SYS 191)*
- SYS 1315, Patents and Inventions (formerly SYS 346)*
*The content of these policies was not changed.