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Board of Regents increases out-of-state tuition again

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents raised nonresident undergraduate tuition an additional 2.5 percent beginning next semester at their meeting in Eau Claire Friday.

The increase will add $126 to UW-Eau Claire out-of-state students' spring semester tuition, said David Gessner, business services director. The additional 2.5 percent creates a total increase of 14 percent, from last year's semester tuition of $5,111 to $5,820 under the new budget. This fall, Eau Claire out-of-state students paid $5,694.

Eau Claire's $50 differential tuition fee is added to the total after the increase is factored.

The increase is necessary to comply with the 2001-03 budget bill signed by Gov. Scott McCallum, said Andrew Soll, vice chancellor for business and student services.

"We have a very small number of nonresidents, so this will affect a small part of our campus," Soll said.

Last year, 252, or 2.4 percent of Eau Claire's 10,560 enrolled students were nonresident or foreign, said Kay Magadance, UW-Eau Claire policy and planning analyst. This excludes Minnesota students treated as Wisconsin residents through reciprocity.

Rene Wilkinson, a senior from St. Louis, said she thinks fewer out-of-state students will come to UW-Eau Claire as a result of the tuition hike, and she'd reconsider if she were looking for a school now.

"I barely came here as it was, so if tuition was more I probably wouldn't come," Wilkinson said.

Soll said there has been some effort over the past few years by the board to have nonresidents pay a larger part of the cost of their instruction to lower the amount supported by Wisconsin taxpayers.

On campuses such as Madison, where nearly 60 percent of nonresident undergrads in the UW System attend, some officials are worried the raises could drive away the out-of-state students they're trying to attract, said Freda Harris, UW System assistant vice president for budget and planning.

"This is an area of concern for us, and something I wanted to bring to your attention because we're rapidly pricing ourselves out of the market for nonresident, undergraduate education," Harris said to the board's Business and Finance Committee Thursday.

UW-Whitewater senior and Regent Tommie Jones, Jr., the only student on the board, reacted to the news with a heavy sigh and shook his head. "At Whitewater, we have a lot of students from Illinois," Jones said. "If nonresident enrollment drops -- that's a serious concern."

Harris said this was a record-setting third time the regents raised nonresident tuition for this academic year.

This semester, tuition bills for out-of-state undergraduates included an increase of 12.9 percent for UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee and 11.5 percent for other UW four-year campuses. The increase reflected an extra 2.5 percent surcharge the Legislature had inserted in the budget.

However, McCallum used his partial veto authority to change the increase from 2.5 percent to 5 percent on Aug. 30 and made additional cuts to the UW System base budget. The additional increased tuition revenue is supposed to offset these cuts.

Rather than charging nonresidents an additional bill for the fall semester, UW officials will cut money from other programs, Harris said.

United Council academic affairs director Maggie Brown said she’s concerned the tuition increase will decrease diversity on campuses.

“Most of our students of color come from outside of the state,” Brown said.

Student Senate President Andy Oettinger said the increase will hurt Eau Claire's ability to bring in people from other regions.

"We're working to diversify and get people from other areas," he said. "This really cripples our efforts to do that."

Soll said the increase was a gubernatorial mandate the board had to follow because the UW System's budget would fall $12 million short if they refused to raise tuition again.

Regent Phyllis Krutsch said the board got a wake-up call in terms of the large increase in tuition compared to last year.

The board will look at actions they can take for next year to avoid another dramatic increase in nonresident tuition, Krutsch said.

Harris said the regents may consider lowering the nonresident increase for next year to lessen the impact of the governor’s 5 percent surcharge.

“Two years of this type of increase would be very large,” she said.

The United Council is pleased that Krutsch wants to find a different way to set nonresident tuition, said Brown, who added the regents could freeze tuition for out-of-state students.

Gessner said the regents’ objective is to hold down prices and stay competitive.

“We're still competitive, but who knows in two or five years,” he said.

Soll said many of Eau Claire's nonresidents have part of their tuition covered by financial aid or tuition remission, which moderates the impact of the surcharge.

“We don't like to see any of our students adversely affected,” he said. “But our (nonresident) tuition is still reasonable compared to other states.”