Here we go:
Acting in a committee, regents also voted to cut non-resident tuition starting this fall by $2,300 at UW-Milwaukee and $2,000 at every other campus except for UW-Madison.
The tuition cuts, which the full board must approve today and again in June, are designed to reverse the declining enrollment of students from out of state. University chancellors have said that they view those students as a major source of revenue, because their tuition, even with the proposed cuts, is higher than residents' tuition.
The chancellors said Thursday that with more out-of-state students, they would be able to afford to expand resident enrollment, diversify their campuses and help boost the state's economy.
Others have said they are worried that bringing in more students from out of state would mean less space on campus for Wisconsin residents. They view it as unacceptable to cut non-resident tuition when resident students are being hit with increases.
Responding to the argument that Wisconsin students would benefit from growing enrollment of non-residents, Rep. Robin Kreibich (R-Eau Claire) said, "Try telling that to the Wisconsin students who got a rejection letter from a UW campus."
Freda Harris, UW System associate vice president for budget and planning, said the number of non-resident undergraduates in the system had dropped by 900 since 2000, resulting in a loss of $13 million in yearly revenue.
The reason, she said, was that those students have been priced out of the system.
Since 2000, non-resident tuition has increased from $12,642 to $18,246 at UWM and from $10,122 to $14,323, on average, at the other campuses except for UW-Madison.
Harris and the chancellors added that increasing non-resident enrollment would do more than boost revenue.
"It would diversify our campus," UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago said.
Harris said the universities would have to attract 240 new students from outside Wisconsin to make up for tuition cuts.
Perhaps Freda Harris is unaware that since 2000, the nation's economy has taken a hit, and that a LOT of potential UW students have been "priced out of the system." In other words, the UW system is suffering from a decrease in sales resulting from a recession. This would not come as a surprise to anyone living in the real world.
It would be very interesting to know how Ms. Harris concludes that the UW's new "price-point" will attract 240 out-of-state students.
By the way--what happens if the plan fails to attract out-staters?
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3 comments:
I have heard that most out of staters at Madison are just rich kids from the East Coast who didn't get into Ivy League and are looking for an almost Ivy League education at a bargin basement price.
Before I can worry about what the Regents are doing, I have to convince my fellow students to stop voluntarily jacking up our student fees, which are set at over $660 annually.
We have a referendum coming up in April that will raise them another $96 if passed.
As for out-of-staters, they're not all Coasties. Unless, of course, all the kids from the Chicago suburbs come from the "Third Coast"...
I would speculate that the downed admissions have more to do with Illinois colleges becoming more cost effective versus Wisconsin. I remember asking a UW-P coworker why she went to UW rather than one of the state schools. With online classes Illinois state schools are actually cheaper for me than if I wanted to do some work at a UWC.
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